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THINK 



A Book for To-day 



By 

COL. WM, C. HUNTER 
ft 
Author of 

Pep, Dollars and Sense, Brass Tacks, etc. 




The Reiliy C& Britton Co. 

Chicago 



6 



^ 



T>V 



Copyright, 1918 

by 

The Reilly & Britton Co. 



Made in U. S. A. 



Published September 24, 1918 
Second Printing— October 1, 1918 



NOV ^3iBi8 



Think 

CLA508259 
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE 

When Colonel Hunter wrote PEP in 1914 and 
offered it to The Reilly & Britton Company, we 
immediately accepted the manuscript for pub- 
lication. So highly did we regard the work that 
the president of this company, over his signa- 
ture, contributed an introductory note of endorse- 
ment, citing his own experience in following the 
rules and principles laid down in PEP for the 
attainment of " poise, efficiency and peace." 

Our confidence and belief in PEP were amply 
justified. Eight large editions were printed in 
four years. Over 70,000 copies have been sold. 

THINK — the last book that Colonel Hunter 
wrote — is now published for the first time. It 
is especially important, coming, as it does, at a 
time when commonsense thinking, good health, 
good cheer, optimism and rational methods of 
living are more necessary than ever before. 

In this trenchantly written volume, Colonel 
Hunter has given some golden advice to the man 
or woman who is facing the big problems of 
to-day in a wavering or hopeless spirit. Correct 
your thinking. Get a grip on yourself. Colonel 
Hunter tells you how. 



THINK 

1. 

We all enter the world with an abundance of 
nerve energy, and by conserving that energy we 
can adapt and adjust our nerve equipment to 
keep pace with the progress and evolution of 
our times. 

The way to preserve and conserve nerve equi- 
librium and power is to rest and relax the nerves 
each day. 

You may rest them by a change of the thought 
habit each day, by relaxation, by sleep, and by 
the suggestions made in this book. 

There are but few advance danger signals 
shown by the nervous system, and in this there is 
a marked difference between the nerves and the 
organic system. 

If you abuse your stomach, head, heart, lungs, 
liver, kidneys or eyes, you have distress and pain. 

The nervous energy is like a barrel of water — 
you can draw water from the faucet at the bot- 

7 



8 THINK 

torn until you have almost exhausted the con- 
tents. 

Nature mends ordinary nerve waste each day, 
like the rains replenish the cistern. 

A reasonable use of your nerve force, like a 

reasonable use of the rainwater, means you can 

maintain a permanent supply. But 
Conserve 
Your you must be reasonable; you must 

give the cistern a chance to refill and 

replace that which you have drawn out. 

You, who have shattered and tattered your 
nerves, are not hopeless. You can come back, 
but it must be done by complete change of the 
acts that brought on the condition. 

Get more sleep. Eliminate the useless, harm- 
ful fads, fancies and functions which disturbed 
and prevented you from living a sane, rational 
life. 

Avoid extremes, cultivate rhythm and regu- 
larity in your business and your home life. Keep 
away from excitement. Read really good books. 
Walk more, talk less. 

Eat less heat-making foods and more apples. 
Follow the diet, exercise and thought rules sug- 
gested in " Pep." 

Maybe these lines are being read by a dis- 
couraged one who is " all nerves," which means 



THINK 9 

lost nerve force. To you I say there 
to Despair, is hope and cheer and strength and 
courage if, right here, now, you re- 
solve to cut the actions, habits and stunts that 
knocked you out and follow my suggestions. 

I know, my friend, for Fve trotted the heat, 
danced the measure, and been through the mill. 

Now I am fearless, calm and prepared. I can 
stand any calamity, meet any issue, endure any 
sorrow. 

I can do prodigious work in an emergency, go 
without rest or eating when required, because I 
have poise, efficiency — peace. 

I realize nothing is as bad as it is painted. 

Nothing is as good as its boosters claim. I go 

_. in the middle of the road, avoiding 

oteer & 

Middle extremes. I have confidence in my 

heart. Courage, hope, happiness, and 
content attend me on my way. 

I've buried envy in a deep pit and covered 
it with quick lime. 

I am keeping worry out by keeping faith, hope 
and cheer thoughts in my brain-room, and these 
are antiseptics against the ravages of the worry 
microbe. 

I have my petty troubles and little make-be- 
lieve worries, just enough of them to make me 



10 THINK 

realize I have them licked, and to remind me I 
must not let up on my mastery of them. 

Worry growls once in a while just to make 
me grab tighter the handle of my whip. 

And you may enjoy this serene state, too. 
There is no secret about it. I will gladly give 
you the rules of the game in this book. Just 
prepare to receive some practical, helpful sug- 
gestions. 



You are a busy person, so am I. Busy per- 
sons are the ones who do things. The architect 

is a busy man, but he has learned that 
How to . . 

Use Your the effort spent in preparing his 

plans is the most important part of 
his work. The plans enable him to do his work 
systematically and lay down rules and methods 
to get the highest efficiency and accomplishment 
from those who do the work of erecting the build- 
ing. 

If the architect would order lumber, stone and 
hardware, without system, and start to erect the 
building without carefully prepared plans, the 
building would lack symmetry and strength, and 
it would be most expensive. 

The planning time therefor was time well spent. 

Few persons have the ability to control and 
conserve their talents so as, to produce the high- 
est efficiency. Men rush along thinking their 
busyness means business. Really, it means 
double energy and extra moves to produce a 
given effect. 

11 



12 THINK 

The elimination of unnecessary moves means 
operating along lines of least resistance, and any 
plan or method that will help to do 
Move« eSSary awav w i tn unnecessary moves and 
make the necessary moves more 
potential will be received with welcome, I am 
sure. 

With the object of conserving energy and 
strengthening your force, this book is written. 

It shall not be a book of ultimate definiteness 
or a book of exact science. There are no definite 
or exact rules that will apply, without exception, 
to any science except mathematics. 

But we shall learn many helpful truths, never- 
theless, and if I err, or disagree with your con- 
clusions, just eliminate those lines and take the 
helps you find. 

I particularly emphasize the importance of 
taking a few minutes each evening and using 
the time for sizing up things, by inventory, analy- 
sis, speculation, comparison and hypothesis. 
Many of the great captains of industry who are 
noted for their energy in accomplishing things - 
worth while, have learned the value of this daily 
habit. 

I want to help YOU to form the habit of 
thinking over each day's activities in the quiet, 



THINK 13 

relaxed, uncolored, unprejudiced, se- 
Thyself. eluded environment of your home. 

When the day's work is over, spend 
fifteen or twenty minutes each evening in seclu- 
sion, and with closed eyes, size yourself up. 
Think over your daily round and the work you 
are doing. Are you getting the best out of your- 
self? Or are you plodding along aimlessly, scat- 
tering your energy in a haphazard, hit-or-miss 
fashion that benefits nobody? Are you growing, 
or are you standing still? In these fifteen-minute 
sizing-up sessions, you will come to grips with 
yourself. You will see yourself as you really are, 
and will discover your weaknesses, your strength, 
your real worth. 

I have chosen the evening as the time for our 
little talks. In the evening we can be cozy, 
comfy and communicative. The bank is closed. 
We met the note and got through the day. We 
are alive and well; we can open our hearts. 
There is no office boy to disturb us, and the life 
insurance agent is away at his club. 

Yes, we can be alone and tranquilly let down 
the tension, lower the speed and with normal 
heartbeats play the low tones, the soft strains, 
the quieting music, and soothe our nerves. 

All day we've heard the band with its drums 



H THINK 

and trombones and shrieky music. The day with 
its busy whirl kept our analyzing mental think- 
tank occupied with thoughts of gain and game 
and fame. 

In the evening we have time to study logic and 
to reason, to analyze and to take inventory, to 
thresh out problems. 

So let us relax and reflect in the evening quiet. 



3. 



Man's nature makes it imperative for him to 
be interested in something. 

That interest is to his help or hurt, according 
as he directs it. 

There is much worry and misery in the world 
because so many are astatic, like a compass that 
has lost its loadstone. 

Man is definitely the result of the materials the 
body and the mind feed upon. 

Character is the result of a determined pur- 
pose to be and to do right — to one's selt and to 
one's fellows. 

The man of character focuses his attention on 
truth, and on fact. 

He uses theories with fact, to aid his progress, 
but he recognizes that theorizing, without fact 
as a safety ballast, is a useless ex- 
Fact.^ penditure. Theories without fact 
leave man in a rudderless boat; he 
gets nowhere, he merely drifts. 

Theory often helps to get at fact, but the bet- 
ter way is to get at fact by proven experience, 

15 



16 THINK 

of which there is an inexhaustible abundance in 
the world. 

Facts are based on natural laws. The study of 
natural laws is beneficial. We shall strive in our 
studies to keep close to fact with just enough 
speculation to enliven the interest in facts. 

Living the artificial life makes for worry, ill- 
ness and failure. 

Living in harmony with the great natural laws 
is the helpful way to live. 

To abide by the law is safety; to violate the 
law brings punishment. 

Every man is better if he follows scientific 
methods and habits of thought and living. 

The loafing or astatic mind will fall into mor- 
bid tendencies. 

The employed, truth-seeking, idealistic, hope- 
ful mind is never dependent on people or things 
for its pleasure. 

The acquiring of helpful knowledge, the seek- 
ing of worth-while truth, are ever profitable em- 
ployments, paying present and future dividends, 
and meanwhile those acts positively divert the 
thought from morbid tendencies. 

I shall strive to bring helpful knowledge, good 
cheer and interesting facts for your present occu- 
pation and benefit. 



THINK 17 

If I succeed in accomplishing my purpose, even 
in part, my time has been well spent. 

We have an unchallenged fact to rest our feet 

on, a fact that shall follow us through all the 

pages of this book, and that is : Our 

Never h Stops. Noughts never stop, our brains never 

sleep. So then, we must consider that 

thought current, and reckon with it. 

The motive power is turned on, and we must 
grasp the helm if we sail the sea of life suc- 
cessfully, baffling storms and avoiding rocks. 

Scientific books are usually dry, uninviting 
reading ; they lack the human interest. They are 
generally bloodless skeletons. 

We shall try to weave science into new pat- 
terns and paint interesting pictures, so that sci- 
ence will attract and not repel. 

This book is different in its suggestions, in 
its prescriptions, in its language, but it is uni- 
versal with all scientific books, in that its aim 
is helpful truth. 

We go by different routes, but our objective 
point is the same. 

We will avoid technical names and symbols, 
and will speak the common language that the 
multitude understands. 

We shall deal with problems and aspirations 



18 THINK 

that come to us all in this busy workaday world. 

We shall try to cut the underbrush in the 
swamp and blaze a plain trail out on to the big 
high road. 

We shall keep in step to the drum-beats of 
truth, we will rest and recreate in cool shady 
places, and then up and on to our purpose with 
smiles on our faces, courage in our hearts, and 
song on our lips. 

Every moment of our journey will be worth 
while and positively helpful if we take the trip 
with conscientious application and continuity of 
purpose. 

Our path is strewn with roses and thorns; we 
must enjoy the roses and escape the thorns. 

We welcome you, the neophyte, who have 
joined us in our pilgrimage. 



4. 



Let's be personal; that's a good way to estab- 
lish a good idea in place of a bad one. 

Are YOU pleasant to live with? Keep this 
personal question before you, even if you are 
cocksure that you can answer, yes. 

Maybe there are some little jars, rattles, grat- 
ings, you are not aware of. Few of us are hon- 
est when looking for our own faults. 
Pleasant. There may be some sand in your gear 
box. It won't hurt you to keep the 
personal question alive for a few days, — " Am I 
pleasant to live with ? " 

I love the pleasant people whether they are 
fat, lean, tall, short, red heads, brown heads, 
homely, handsome, republicans or democrats, 
business men or artisans. 

The complaining, unpleasant grouch is like a 
bear with a toothache. Miserable himself and 
spreading misery all around. 

A freckle-faced, red-headed, cross=eyed man 
with a healthy funny bone will spread more cheer- 
fulness and sunshine than a bench full of sad and 

19 



20 THINK 

solemn justices of the supreme court, or a re- 
ligious conference. 

What a different story would be written of 
Job, if he had only possessed a servant who could 
dance a double shuffle and whistle " Dixie " while 
cooking breakfast. 

David was a man after my own heart; he 
brought gladsome songs into the world. He said, 
" Live the way of pleasantness." 

You can pray, sing, play, work, think, rest, 
hope ; you can be well or ill, rich or poor and still 
be pleasant to live with. 

Being pleasant helps you to be strong in body 

and mind, and it keeps you young a long time. 

It's good medicine; I know it. My 

PI ft>A sfln t n ft ^ ^i 

a Tonic little motto, " Be pleasant every 

morning until ten o'clock, the rest of 
the day will take care of itself," has brought sun- 
shine into many homes. 

If you frown it will soon get to be a habit — 
and give you a heavy heart. If you smile your 
face will be attractive, no matter how unlucky 
you were in the lottery of beauty. 

Be pleasant and you will never feel old. The 
pleasant disposition is a sure route to happy land 
and happy homes. 

Old Ponce de Leon lost out in searching for the 



THINK 21 

fountain of youth. If he had been pleasant, he 
would have kept the smiles on his wife's face and 
there would have been no excuse to leave her to 
find the mythical fountain. 

Hoe cake, bacon and smiles beat lobster, cham- 
pagne and frowns. 

Our land is thrice blessed with its peaceful, 
happy homes — for " happy homes are the 
strength of a nation." 

Be pleasant in your home. Make the children 
feel home is the pleasantest place in the world. 

Every act and example is written in the child's 
memory tablet. Let your hours with the children 
be loving, laughing, living hours. Pat them on 
the head, joke with them, whisper affection, ex- 
press love to them. Those acts will be remem- 
bered in all their years to come, for you are plant- 
ing everlasting plants that may pass on to a hun- 
dred generations and make children happy a thou- 
sand years from now. 

Be pleasant to live with and you will have 

more pleasant things to live for. There will be 

_ m , kindnesses, kisses, beauty, health, 

Cheerfulness J 

Its Own peace, fun, happiness and content 

Reward. . „ , , 

coming your way all along the 

great big road of life you are traveling. 

Be pleasant to live with and the people will 



22 THINK 

turn to you as you pass and reflect your cheer- 
fulness like the sunflowers turn to face the sun. 

Be pleasant; don't be cross and crabbed be- 
cause someone else in the household is not pleas- 
ant. Do your part; you will likely thereby cure 
the frown habit on the face of the unfortunate 
disturber of your peace. 

Make yourself right before you criticise your 
life partner. Answer this question, " Am I pleas- 
ant to live with? " 

Don't fool yourself in the matter. Get right 
down to brass tacks with yourself, watch your 
moves and acts and attitude for ten days care- 
fully before answering the question. 

If your answer is no, now is your time to 
change your attitude and try the pleasant plan, 
and here is my blessing and good wishes in such 
an event. 



There is fun and interest and diversion all 
around us. All we need is keen observation and 
we will see much that passes unnoticed to the 
preoccupied person. 

What an interesting thing is the great round 
world we live in! The people are as interesting 
as fish in an aquarium. 

See the rushing, surging crowd. Man pushes 

along searching for necessary things to be done ; 

he builds cities, harnesses rivers, 
Sitting on 
the Side makes ships to sail the seas to the 

uttermost parts of the earth. Man 

goes to war, he builds death-dealing devices that 

destroy in a few minutes a beautiful cathedral 

which has taken centuries to build. 

Man makes the desert blossom like a rose. 

Here is the scientist in his laboratory, trying 
to unite certain elements to produce new sub- 
stance. Here is the beauty in her silken nest; 
here the lover; there the musician; yonder the 
peanut man, and in the office building is the cap- 
tain of industry -— all busy bees deeply absorbed 
in their respective interests, and intoxicated in 

23 



24 THINK 

the belief that they are important and greatly 
necessary. 

Yet in the broad measure of ages they are mere 
ripples on the sea of time, faint bubbles on the 
eternal deep, and grains of sand at the moun- 
tain foot. 

Great man by his own measure — minute man 
by the great measure of time. Mammoths to the 
near-sighted — mites to the far-sighted. Hustle 
and bustle, crowd and push. They tramp down 
the weaker brothers in the mad race after the 
golden shekels, which are only measures of the 
ability to buy and own material things; symbols 
of power to make others serve you. These golden 
shekels which men fret, sweat and fight for, can 
only buy physical and material things. 

Away from the crowd is the little group who 
have learned a great truth, which is that happi- 
ness is not to be bought with gold. 
Truth** This ^ tt: * e minority knows that men- 

tal pleasures are best, and that men- 
tal pleasures cannot be found on the great high- 
way of material conquest. 

The puffy, corn-fed millionaire pities the man 
who is content to live with small means and 
enjoy what he has to the full extent. 

The wise man is he who gets fullness out of 



THINK 25 

life — happiness, respect, content, freedom from 
worry; who is busy doing useful 
H^Jpiness. things — busy helping his brother, 
busy training his children, busy 
spreading sunshine and love and the close- 
together feeling in his home circle. 

The corn-fed, hardened, senseless, money-mad, 
dollar-worshipper knows not peace. Smiles sel- 
dom linger on his lips. Peace never rests in 
his bosom, cheer never lights his face. He is 
simply a fighting machine, miserable in solitude, 
suffering when inactive and sick when resting. 

The money-chaser is up and doing, working 
like a Trojan, because occupation takes his mind 
off the painful picture of his misspent opportun- 
ity and his destroyed natural instinct. When 
fighting for gold he forgets his appalling pov- 
erty in the really worth-while things in the world. 

Like the drunkard in his cups, the intoxication 
makes him forget, and he is negatively happy. 

Money received as reward for doing things 
worth-while is laudable. 

We cannot sit idly by and neglect to earn 
money to provide food, shelter and education for 
our loved ones, but between times we should 
seek the wealth that comes from right mental 
employment. 



26 THINK 

The millionaire thinks, dreams and gets dol- 
lars, and that is all. 

The worth-while man thinks kindness, useful- 
ness, self-improvement, brotherhood, love and he 
gets happiness. 

The man who discovers means to help his 
fellow man, does a good act, but is the man 
with the dollars in front of his eyes 
Others. w ^° commercializes the discovery 

and invention. In the end, the man 
that helped mankind fares better than the man 
who made the millions. 

It's a great crowd surging by, and very few 
have the good sense to learn the value of TO- 
DAY. That great crowd I see below my win- 
dow thinks ever of to-morrow and forgets the 
wondrous opportunities that to-clay holds out. 

Those who think always of to-morrow will 
never get the beauties and joys from life that 
comes to the little group of To-day, who appre- 
ciates and enjoys the real Now, rather than the 
pictured To-morrow that never comes. 

It's mighty interesting to sit on the side lines 
and watch the crowds go by and speculate on 
their movements. 

Save up your pennies, measure everything by 
the dollar standard, think dollars, dream dollars, 



THINK 27 

work, slave, push for the dollars 
to Disillu- and you will build a fortune. You 
will never have peace or recreation 
or joy; you will live only in hope of a some day 
when you will retire. That's the way the mil- 
lionaires travel life's highway. 

Some day the paper will announce the death 
of those millionaires, and then the dollars will 
be blown in by reckless heirs, and so the grind- 
ing wheels roll on. 

Surely there are many ways of looking at 
things. Surely there is much of interest in the 
crowd. Surely there is an unending amount of 
thought and speculation possible about that 
crowd way down on the street below my window. 
What passions, what hopes, what joys, what 
sorrows, are in the hearts of that hurrying, wor- 
rying crowd. 

What noise this din of traffic makes ; what ac- 
tivity man has stirred up. 

A picture, a drama, a tragedy, a comedy — all 
these I see in the human ants that run along be- 
low the hive where I sit and write these lines. 

The phone rings and my little Nancy Lou's 
voice says, " Daddy, will you please bring me 
a pencil and a tablet with lines on it." 

So I must needs stop this, whatever you may 



28 THINK 

call it, and push through the crowd to get that 
tablet with " lines on it " for rny Nancy Lou ; and 
there is some feeling of happiness and content 
and peace in Daddy's heart as he lays down his 
pen, for Daddy is going Home, and that word 
means a lot in his little family, where they all 
say " Daddy " instead of Papa or Father. 



It is hard enough to do duty once, but doubly 

hard when you anticipate mentally everything 

you have to do to-morrow. This 
Wasted 
Energy. doing things twice is a habit easily 

acquired if you don't watch out, 
and it means wasted energy. 

I have just read the experience of a housewife 
who was resting on a couch and reading. Her eye 
caught sight of a book lying on the floor across 
the room. 

Instantly herimindometer, if I may coin a word, 
registered, " When you get up, pick up that 
book." 

She went on reading, but her mind was not 
on the magazine she held, but on that book on 
the floor. 

So obsessed did she become that she was mis- 
erable until she got up and picked up the book. 
I was talking with a woman who v/as resting 
on her porch. Her day's work was over. She 
was dressed for the afternoon. Everything in the 
home was neat, sweet, clean and tidy. All was 

29 



30 THINK 

serene but her face, and that was the window 
through which I saw worry working overtime. 

By strategy I learned the trouble, and here is 
her story : " To-morrow a lot of fruit will be 
ready to preserve. I am worrying where I shall 
put it. My fruit closet is full." 

The woman had every reason to say to her- 
self, " Sufficient unto the day," yet she was doing 

the preserving mentally to-day and 
Doing 
Things to-morrow she would do the work 

physically. A tired mind is harder 

to rest than a tired body, so we must nip this 

advance mental work in the bud. 

We have all been mentally obsessed with 
worrying about the things we were going to take 
on our trip; then worrying over the routine of 
our work when we should return from our trip. 

If the housewife looks over her week's work 
and washes the dishes, makes the beds, cooks the 
meals, dresses the children, mends the clothes, 
and does all these things in her imagination be- 
fore she does them in reality, she is indeed a hard 
working woman. 

It's all right to plan your work ; that's economy 
in mental expenditure, for it simplifies, system- 
atizes, and saves work. 

Plan your work in advance, but do not keep 



THINK 31 

your mind on the plans until the work is done. 

When you have planned, then close 

Effidlncy. 18 the mental book of to-morrow's 

duty, and turn to pleasures, rest, 

relaxation and enjoyment of to-day. 

It is to get a definite, different thought habit 
fixed that I ask you to give me these few minutes 
each day, so that we may consider various phases 
of life, science, pleasure, morals and mental re- 
freshment. 

True, we can only have a fleeting look at things, 
but we'll get enough, I hope, to freshen your 
minds, change the humdrum, and elicit interest 
in things. Maybe these heart-to-heart, confiden- 
tial chats will help us and keep us from going 
through the mental motions of to-morrow's 
physical work. 

If these evening talks interest you, help clear 
your vision, help cheer you, help rest you, then 
they are good for you, and because they help you, 
they certainly benefit me and make me very 
happy, because happiness comes from doing 
something for others. 

I write as the mood strikes me, or as a phase 
of life comes before me, or as an idea strikes in 
and just won't let go until I grasp my pen and 
let the words flow. 



32 THINK 

I mean this book to be human, and not a studied 
literary effort. 

I want to reach you right there alone in the 
room where you are reading this, and I want the 
suggestions, the good, the help, to soak in, and 
I want you to pass the good you get to your 
brother; you won't lose a bit by doing so. 



7. 



" She is all right — her only trouble is her 
NERVES." How often we hear that and how 
little does the person with steady nerves appreci- 
ate the tortures of " nerves." 

A cut, a bruise, a headache, or any of the physi- 
cal ailments can be quickly cured. Nature will 
mend the break, but tired, worn, 
Nerves. stretched, abused nerves take time 

to restore. These nerve ailments 
call for most vigorous mental treatment. 

Neurasthenia means debilitated or prostrated 
nerves and it shows itself first of all by worry. 
Worry means the inability to relax the attention 
from a definite fear or fancied hard luck. Worry 
leads to many physical and mental disorders. 

Left alone this worry stage develops into an 
acute state and brings with it nervous prostra- 
tion, and sometimes a complete collapse of the 
will power. 

Before the acute stage of neurasthenia is 
reached, there is noticed " brain fag," and brain 
fag is nature's warning signal calling upon you 
to take notice and change your mental habits. 

33 



34 THINK 

Worry sometimes develops into hysteria ; again 
it takes the form of hypochondria or chronic 
blues. The hypochondriac has a chronic, morbid 
anxiety about personal health and personal wel- 
fare. Frequently this state is accompanied by 
melancholia. 

Meloncholia is the fork in the road. One turn- 
ing leads to incurable insanity, the other to cura- 
ble melancholia. 

Right here is where heroic action is needed 
by the sufferer. 

Here is where the sufferer must exert his maxi- 
mum v/ill power, and change completely his men- 
tal and physical habits and his sur- 
Cure the r J 

Worry roundings. Occupation, changed 

habits, taking in of confidence, faith 
and courage thoughts — these changes are neces- 
sary to the victim of melancholia, or he will shat- 
ter his health on the danger rocks and go to 
pieces. 

Melancholia is an ailment that offers a good 
chance for Christian Science. Mental suggestion, 
the powerful personality of a friend, and the per- 
sonal help such a friend can give by counsel, 
example and suggestion, are all helps. 

I have abundant evidence that melancholia suf- 
ferers can be restored to peace, efficiency and 



THINK 35 

poise, by proper thought direction, and by proper 
physical employment. 

" Pep," which has principally to do with men- 
tal efficiency, definitely lays down rules and prac- 
tical suggestions for the employment of the mind 
and body. I have letters and verbal proofs in 
quantity proving the efficiency of those rules and 
suggestions. 

So wonderful have been the results, so numer- 
ous the recoveries, that the testimonials, if pub- 
lished, would make the fake nerve tonic manu- 
facturer die of envy. 

" Only your nerves." I cannot understand 

why the word, only, is used. It makes it appear 

that nerves are of minor impor- 
The Impor- 
tance of tance. Nerves are less understood 

than anything in the human an- 
atomy and they are harder to understand. 

Experience has proved that nerves cannot be 
restored by dope, patent medicines, tonics or 
prescriptions. 

The cure must come by and through the indi- 
vidual possessing the nerves, and by and through 
the individual's power of will and mastery of the 
mind. 

Get the mental equipment right. Let the mind 
master the body. Let the nerve sufferer get hold 



36 THINK 

of himself and fill his brain with faith-thought 
instead of fear-thought, with courage instead of 
cowardice, with strength instead of weakness, 
with hope instead of despair, with smiles instead 
of frowns, with occupation instead of sluggish- 
ness, and wonders will appear. 

The little shredded, tingling nerve-ends will 
then commence to synchronize instead of fight, 
to harmonize instead of breaking into discord, to 
build instead of destroy. 

The building, or coming back to a normal state, 
is slow; it takes time, patience and will power, 

but it can be done. I know. I 
You Can 

"Come have been through the mill, and I 

Back " 

pass the word to you and try to 

stir you to be up and doing, even as I did. 

Your nerves can be steadied, your thoughts 
uplifted, your health restored, your ambition re- 
established, your normality fixed. 

Smiles, love and content are to be yours. Poise, 
efficiency, peace, your blessings. Health, happi- 
ness and hope your dividends. All these I prom- 
ise you if you will read this book from cover to 
cover, think, and follow its plain, practical teach- 
ings. 

The curriculum is not hard; it is not my dis- 
covery. I am merely the purveyor of facts, the 



THINK 37 

gleaner of truth, and the selector of helpful ex- 
periences, first of all for my own benefit, and 
having proved the truth in my own case, for 
friends to whom I pass the truths and rules. 

I made bold to write books, but the writing has 
paid me well, not alone in dollars, but from hav- 
ing done a helpful thing in writing for other 
humans who have had problems, worries and 
nerves. 

The big books on nerves are discouraging and 
forbidding by their immensity and the labyrinth 
of technical, scientific terms. There are fine for 
teachers, but discouraging for the layman. 

The great everyday crowd is the class I want 
to talk to, and so I endeavor to write in plain 
human, sincere style from heart to heart, with 
understanding, feeling, charity and sympathy. 

I have felt the things you feel, and if I can 
by example, emphasis, suggestion, rule or good 
intent, be a help to you, then I have done a 
service. 



8. 



There are men who cannot be kept down by 
circumstances or obstacles. 

These men " carry on " with confidence in their 

hearts and smiles on their faces. They do not 

lie in wait for the band wagon or 
The Men 
Who Do favorable winds; they make things 

happen. They are alert and alive 
to every favorable opportunity and helpful in- 
fluence that comes their way. 

These men are men of good health. They are 
out of doors much; they carry their heads high 
and breathe in good air deeply. They greet 
friends with a smile and put meaning and feeling 
into every hand clasp. 

Let's you and I follow their trail, for it leads 
out on to the big road. 

Do not fear being misunderstood; right will 
finally come into its own. 

We will keep our minds off our enemies, and 
keep our thoughts on our purpose ; we will make 
up our minds what we want to do. We will mark 
a straight line on the log and hew to that line. 

38 



THINK 39 

Fear is the dope drug that kills initiative ; hate 
the poison that shatters clear thinking. 

Hate and fear are the iron ore in our life's ves- 
sel ; they deflect the compass and prevent us from 
holding to the course. 

There are splendid worth-while things for us 
to do, and with continuity of action and single- 
ness of purpose on our part the 

Grasp J -11 u 

Present days will pass by as we are seizing 

s * opportunity and making use of the 
things required for the fulfillment of our desires. 
We are like the coral insect that takes from the 
running tide the material to build a solid fortress. 
Our running tide is made up of the gliding golden 
days. 

Let's waste no time in trying to make friends 
or in seeking to attach ourselves to others. True 
friends are not caught by pursuit; they come to 
us; they happen through circumstances we do 
not create. 

Self-reliance is ours, and we must first use it 
for our own betterment. We will then have a 
surplus of energy to allow us to help others. 

Our energy hours must be devoted to our pur- 
poses and ideals. Atween times, we must rest 
and relax, and repair the waste that strenuosity 
makes. 



40 THINK 

Breathe good air, bask in the sunshine, see 
nature, and say to yourself : " All these treasure* 
are for me; all these things I am part of." 

Do not prepare for death ; prepare for life. Pre- 
paring for death brings the end before your al- 
lotted time. Like Job of old, that 
of Living. which we fear will come to us. We 
must not think of death, or waste 
time preparing for it. It makes us miserable 
to-day. It makes us weak and fills us with fear, 
and it draws the day of our departure nearer. 

To-day is ours. Live freely, fully to-day. Be 
unafraid, unhurried, and undisturbed. 

We are building character, and the way we 
build it is by mental attitude, by our acts, and 
by the way we employ the precious moments of 
to-day. 

Put yourself in harmony with nature — realize 
the wonderful power of the will — and you will 
be strong, a veritable king among men. 



9. 



The calamity howler is found everywhere. In 
times of peace or war he is with us. This pessi- 
mist sows seeds of discord, plants 
Pessimist. envy, generates the anarchist spirit, 
and is an all-around nuisance. 
A man may spend years erecting a building; 
a fiend can demolish it in a minute with a stick 
of dynamite. 

The calamity howler is a destroyer; he doesn't 
think, he spurts out words. His words and argu- 
ments are simply parrot mimicry and void of 
intellectual impulse, as are the movements of 
an angle worm. 

These gloom merchants talk of their rights, 
and they expect and demand the same privileges 
and benefits that are earned by the man who 
uses his head. 

The pessimist sees good in nobody. Human 
nature to him is a cesspool of villainy and cor- 
ruption, He will not tolerate a word of praise 
for a thing well done. Disparagement is his 
favorite weapon. He ascribes mean and selfish 

41 



42 THINK 

motives to public-spirited men. Every deed of 
kindness, every act of generosity, is given a sinis- 
ter meaning when seen in the light of his own 
base soul. 

At home he is a grumbler and a grouch. His 
presence depresses, and happiness fades away 
at his approach. 

In the community, he never reaches high office 
because he lacks civic spirit and the forward- 
looking view. He obstructs progress instead of 
promoting it. 

At tys work, he lags behind where others 
achieve. He rails at conditions instead of chang- 
ing them, and eventually he finds himself shelfed 
and shunned as a back number. 

These purveyors of panic eat into the vitals of 
the nation. They breed discontent, undermine 
morale, and sow suspicion and distrust where 
previously there had been friendliness, co-opera- 
tion and the pull-together spirit. 

Wherever men gather, you will find these 
ghoulish spirits. They are in evidence in times 
of peace and plenty, as well as in times of war 
and peril. 

It matters not that our farmers are seeing to 
it that our granaries are filled to-day as never 
before, and that every man has a job. These 



THINK 43 

prophets of disaster have only one string to their 
harp, and they will twang on that and no other. 
In times of war, the pessimist is doubly dan- 
gerous, for he spreads his iniquitous propaganda 

among people who are already 
of Pessimism, under a great emotional strain. 

Always a menace, when a people 
are in the throes of a great life-and-death strug- 
gle, it is doubly necessary to stamp out this de- 
stroyer of morale, with his insidious campaign 
of gloom and despair and his veiled innuendos 
of panic and destruction. 

It is up to you and to me to denounce these 
breeders of discord ; to hold them up to the scorn 
of intelligent, thinking people. They are neither 
doers nor thinkers, and the world has no need 
of them in these trying times. 



10. 



This evening I rode home in a crowded street 
car. What an interesting study it was to watch 
the faces in that car. 

Discontent, discomfort, worry, gloominess on 
nearly every face. Tired faces, tired bodies 
drooped over from a hard day's work, mouth cor- 
ners depressed. Hopelessness stamped on the 
countenances. 

As the people came in the car, some of them 
had smiles or at least passable expressions, but 
when they got crowded together 
and Cheer. an d saw tne gloomy faces, the 
gloom spread to their faces, too. 
At a picnic, all are smiling and laughing. In 
the street car at six o'clock, the long procession 
of workers is a stream of solemn faces. Conta- 
gion, example, surroundings, yes, that's it — con- 
tagion and example. 

At six o'clock in the cars, all is gloom, blue- 

ness and sorrow faces. At eight o'clock many of 

these faces will be changed; there will be joy, 

smiles, rosiness, singing and dancing. Yet the 

4* 



THINK 45 

actual conditions of finance, health, hope or pros- 
pects haven't changed since these people were in 
the car at six o'clock. 

Why, then, such a change in two hours? 

It is this : At seven o'clock these workers sat 
down to supper; they were out of that gloom- 
reflected street car atmosphere. 
Good Cheer » T « . «< . „« 

Contagious. N °w they are talking; they are 

rounding-up the day's activities; 
they are HOME with mother, sister, brother and 
the kiddies. The home ones greet them with 
smiles, the appetizing supper pleases the palate, 
good cheer permeates, and all around them is 
smiles and joy. 

Gloom spreads gloom. Joy spreads joy. Gloom 
is black; joy is white. One darkens, the other 
brightens, 

Well, then, where's the moral? What's the 
benefit from this little study of the street car 
passengers? 

The lesson is plain: It is that you and I are 
ferments of joy, or acids of gloom. We are in- 
fluences to help or to hurt. To hurt others by 
our example hurts us. To help others by our 
example helps us. We become happier than ever. 

In the street car, life was not worth living if 
you judged by the pained faces. In two hours, 



46 THINK 

by changed thought, ■ the example of life was 
worth while. 
What changes mental attitude makes! 

" When a man has spent 
His very last cent, 
The world looks blue, you bet ; 
But give him a dollar, 
And loud he will holler 
There's life in the old world yet." 

Next time we get on the street car, let's plant 
some smiles. Let's give that lady a seat and 
smile when we do it. 

We can spread cheer by merely wearing a 
cheery face. Costs little, pays big. Let's do it. 



11. 



Some of our richest blessings are gained by 
not striving for them directly. This is so true 
that we accept the blessings without thinking 
about how we came to get them. 

Particularly true is this in the matter of happi- 
ness. Everyone wants to be happy, but few know 
how to secure this blessing. Most 
Happy. people have the idea that the pos- 

session of material things is neces- 
sary to happiness, and that idea is what keeps 
architects, automobile makers, jewelers, tailors, 
hotels, railroads, steamships and golf courses 
busy. 

Do your duty well, have a worth-while ambi- 
tion, be a dreamer, have an ideal, keep your duty 
in mind, be occupied sincerely with your work, 
keep on the road to your ideal, and happiness 
will cross your path all the while. 

Happiness is an elusive prize ; it's wary, timid, 
alert and cannot be caught. Chase it and it es- 
capes your grasp. 

I read today of a friend who walked home with 
47 



48 THINK 

a workman. This is the workman's story: He 
had a son who was making a rec- 
Story. OI "d m school. He had two daugh- 

ters who helped their mother; he 
had a cottage, a little yard, a few flowers, a gar- 
den. He worked hard in a garage by day, and 
in the evening he cultivated his flowers, his gar- 
den, and his family. He had health, plus con- 
tentment a-plenty. His possessions were few and 
the care of them consequently a negligible effort. 

Happiness flowed in the cracks of his door. 
Smiles were on his lips, joy in his heart, love 
in his bosom ; that's the story my friend heard. 

Then came a friend in an automobile on his 
way home from the club. He picked up my 1 
friend, and unfolded to him a tale of woe, misery 
and discontent. 

This club man had money, automobiles, social 
standing, possessions, and all the objects and ma- 
terial things envious persons covet — yet he was 
unhappy. His whole life was spent chasing hap- 
piness, but his sixty horsepower auto wasn't fast 
enough to catch it. 

The poor man I have told you about was the 
man who washed the club man's auto. 

The strenuous pleasure seeker fails to get hap- 
piness; that is an inexorable law. He develops 



THINK 49 

into a pessimist with an acrid, satirical disgust at 
all the simple, wholesome, worth-while, real 
things in life. 

This is not a new discovery of mine ; it's an old 
truth. Read Ecclesiastes, the pessimistic chroni- 
cle of the Bible, and you'll learn what comes to 
the pleasure-chaser, and you will know about 
" vanity and vexation of spirit." 

Do something for somebody. Engage in moves 
and enterprises that will be of service to the com- 
munity and help the uplift of man- 
Making J r r 
Others kind. This making others happy 

is a positive insurance and guaran- 
tee of your own happiness. 

You must keep a stiff upper lip, a stiff back- 
bone; you must forget the wishbone and the en- 
vious heart. 

Paul had trials, setbacks, hardships and hard 
labors; he had defeats and discouragements and 
still the record shows he was " always rejoicing." 

Paul was a man of Pep. In the dungeon, with 
his feet in stocks, he sang songs and rejoiced. 
Paul was happy, ever and always, not because he 
strove to get happiness, but because he had dedi- 
cated his life to the service of mankind. 

The real hero, the real man of fame, the real 
man of popularity, doesn't arrive by setting out 



50 THINK 

on a quest for any of these things; the result is 
incidental. 

The real hero forgets self first of all; that is 
the essential step to greatness. 

Washington at Valley Forge had no thought 
that his acts there would furnish inspiration for 
a picture that would endure for generations. 

Lincoln, the care-worn, tired, noble man, in 
his speech at Gettysburg, never dreamed that 
that speech would stamp him as a master of 
words and thought, in the hearts of his country- 
men. He thought not of self. He was trying to 
soothe wounds, cheer troubled spirits, and give 
courage to those who had been so long in shadow- 
land. 

Ever has it been that fame, glory, happiness 
came as rewards, not to those who strive to 
capture, but to those who strive to free others 
from their troubles, burdens and problems. 



12. 



I am often asked : " Are you happy ALL the 
time?" My answer is no. 

A continuous state of happiness cannot be en- 
joyed by any human. There are no plans, no 

habits, no methods of living that 
Continuous 

Happiness will insure unbroken happiness. 
Impossible. Happiness means periods or mark . 

ing posts in our journey along life's road. These 
high points of bliss are enjoyed because we have 
to walk through the low places between times. 

Continuous sunshine, continuous warm wea- 
ther, continuous rest, continuous travel, continu- 
ous anything spells monotony. We must have 
variety. 

We need the night to make us enjoy the day, 
winter to make us enjoy summer, clouds to make 
us enjoy sunshine, sorrow to make us enjoy hap- 
piness. 

But, dear reader, mark this : We can be philo- 
sophical, and have content, serenity and poise 
between the happiness periods. 

When you get blue, or have dread or sorrow, 
51 



52 THINK 

or possess that indescribable something that 
makes you feel badly; when you have worry or 
trouble, then's the time to get hold of your think- 
ing machinery and dispel the shadows that cross 
your path. 

Occupation and focusing your thoughts on 
your blessings — these are the methods to em- 
ploy. 

As long as you dwell upon your imagined or 
your real sorrows, you will be miserable and the 
worries will magnify like gathering clouds in 
April. 

Change your thoughts to confidence, faith, and 
good cheer, and busy your hands with work. 
Think of the happiness periods you 
Happiness. have had, and know that there are 
further happiness dividends com- 
ing to you. Keep this sort of thought, and with 
it, useful occupation, and the sunshine will dispel 
your gloomy forebodings and sorrow thoughts 
like the sun dispels the April showers, bringing 
about a more beautiful day because of the clouds 
and storms just passed. 

When trouble or sorrows come, sweeten your 
cup with sugar remembrances of joys that have 
been and joys you are to have. 

Envy no one ; envy breeds worry. The person 



THINK 53 

you would envy has his sorrows and shadows, 
too. You see him only when the sunlight is on 
the face ,* you don't see him when he is in shadow- 
land. 

No, dear ones, I, nor you, nor anyone on earth 
can have complete, unruffled, continued happi- 
ness, but we can brace up and call 
Brace Up, .,, , 

Cheer Up. our reserve will-power, reason, and 

self-confidence into action when we 
come to the marshy places along the road. We 
can pick our steps and get through the mire, and 
sooner than we believe it possible, we can get on 
the good solid ground; and as we travel, happi- 
ness will often come as a reward for our poise 
and patience. 

My friends say : " You always seem happy," 
and in that saying they tell a truth, for I am 
happy often — very, very often — and between 
times I make myself seem to be happy. This 
making myself " seem to be happy " gives me 
serenity, contentment, fortitude, and the very 
" seeming " soon blossoms into a reality of the 
condition I seem to be in. 

You can be happy often, and when you are 
not happy, just seem to be happy anyway ; it will 
help you much. 



13. 



A little child is crying over a real or fancied 
injury to her body or to her pride. 

So long as she keeps her mind on the subject 
she is miserable. 

Distract her attention, get her mind on another 
subject, and her tears stop and smiles replace 
frowns. 

This shows how we are creatures of our 
thoughts. " As a man thinketh in his heart, so 
is he " is a truth that has endured through the 
centuries. 

We are children in so far as we cry and suffer 
when we think of our ills or hurts or wrongs or 
bad luck. 

We can smile and have peace, poise and 
strength if we change our thoughts to faith, cour- 
age and confidence. 

Our condition is what we make it. If we think 

fear, worry and misery, we will suffer. If we 

think faith, peace and happiness, 
Fear-Thought .„ . ,. f „ , , 

and Faith- we will enjoy life. Every thought 

oug ' that comes out of our brain had to 

54 



THINK 55 

go in first. The kind of thoughts we have afford 
an indication of the kind of people we are. 

If we feed our brain storehouse with trash and 
fear and nonsense, we have poor material to 
draw from. 

The last thought we put in the brain before 
going to sleep is most likely to last longest. So 
it is our duty to quietly relax, to 
Control. s * ow down, to eliminate fear- 

thought and self-accusation, and to 
substitute some good helpful thought in closing 
the mental book of each day. 

Therefore read a chapter or two from a worth- 
while book the last thing before going to bed. 

Say to yourself, " I am unafraid ; I can, I will 
awake in the morning with smiles on my face, 
courage in my heart, and song on my lips." 

These suggestions for closing the day will be 
of instant help to you. 

The great power for good — the wherewith to 
give you strength, progress and efficiency — is 
within yourself and at the command of your will. 

You can't think faith and fear, good and bad, 
courage and defeat, all at the same time. 

You can only think one thing at a time. 

Your great power is your will, and the where- 
with to help yourself is your thought habit. 



56 THINK 

Change your thought habit as you go to bed. 
You can do it; it's a matter of will determina- 
tion. The more faithful you are to your purpose, 
the easier your task will be. Be patient, consci- 
entious, rational and confident. 

You are what your thoughts picture you to 
be. Your will directs your thoughts. 

Don't get discouraged if you can't suddenly 
change your life from shadow to sunshine, from 
illness to wellness. 

Big things take time and patience. The great 
ship lies in the harbor pointed North. A tug boat 
could make a sudden pull and break the great 
chain or tow line. 

Yet you could take a half-inch rope and with 
your own hands turn the great ship completely 
around by pulling steadily and patiently. The 
movement would be slow, but it would be sure 
and you would finally accomplish your purpose. 

Don't jerk and fret and be impatient with your- 
self. You have been for years perhaps worrying 
and thinking fear-thoughts. You have put a lot 
of useless and harmful material in your brain. 

You can't clean all your brain house in a day 
or a week, but you can do a little cleaning each 
day. 

You can take the faith-rope of good purpose 



THINK 57 

and start to pull gently, and finally you will turn 
your whole life's character toward the port of 
success. 

The great crowd worries; only the few have 
learned the power of the will, and the benefits to 
be derived from mental control. 

Business and social duties call for strong men 
and woman. You can't reach mastership if you 
remain a slave. 

Your first duty is to yourself, and success or 
failure is your reward exactly in proportion as 
you exercise your will power and handle your 
thought habits. 



14. 



The doctors are giving less medicine and doing 
more in the way of suggesting diet and exercise 

rules, sanitation and preventive 
The Best . ■»*■ i. . . i 

Medicine. practices. Medicine is mostly poi- 
son and its effect is to shock the 
organs or glands to bring about reaction. Nature 
makes the cure. 

In emergency drugs are all right, but the doc- 
tor and not the individual should settle the mat- 
ter of what drug to use and the proper time to 
use it. 

When there's a pain or disease, it's due to con- 
gestion of some organ, to infection, or to im- 
proper nourishment, or improper habits. 

Ninety per cent of aches, pains and ailments 
can be cured by a dominant mental attitude and 
by proper attention to eating and exercise. 

The habitual medicine user is not cured by 
the medicine but by nature; the medicine simply 
serves as a means to establish mental control and 
to create confidence in the sufferer that he is to 
get well. 

58 



THINK 59 

Recently I spent much time in a large hospital 
visiting a relative who had been operated on. I 
know several members of the staff of doctors and 
nurses. 

I have seen many operations, some very heroic 
ones, and my appreciation of the good work of 
good surgeons is greatly augmented by the won- 
derful helps I have seen them bring to suffering 
humanity. 

I have talked with scores of patients and 
watched the progress of their cases. 

I have by plausible logic, mental suggestion, 
and good cheer to the hospital patients, brought 
many a smile through a mist of tears. 

I have seen the wonderful results of mental 
suggestion to the discouraged patients. 

To show the effects that faith-thought will 
produce, I will relate some instances. 

One patient screaming for a hypodermic injec- 
tion to relieve her pain was given an injection 
of sterilized water and the pain van- 
Sickness, ished. Another just could not sleep 
without her bromide. The nurse 
fixed up a powder of sugar, salt and flour; 
the patient took the powder and went to 
sleep. That was mind control and mental 
longing satisfied. 



60 THINK 

Another patient had to take something to stop 
her pains; she got capsules of magnesia. The 
capsule satisfied her longing, established her faith 
and gave her relief; the relief was through her 
mind and not through the capsule. 

I have seen several weary, despondent patients 

fretting and wearing themselves out over their 

so-called weakness and run-down 

Though? condition. I have placed copies of 

Direction. « p ep » in their hands and watc h e d 

courage, faith, cheer and serenity come to them. 
It diverted their minds from self-thought and 
self-accusation to faith-thought, confidence and 
courage. 

You can think of only one thing at a time, and 
" Pep " or any other book that can change the 
thought habit from fear to faith, from worry to 
peace, is doing a service. 

I've been in shadowland in the hospital to see 
for myself the actual help that mental control 
will bring to sufferers, and the evidence is far 
above my powers to describe. 

I've seen the patient's eyes brighten up when 
the cheery surgeon came with hope, smiles and 
confidence on his face. 

I've seen the drooping of spirits when well- 
meaning but poor-expressing friends came into 



THINK 61 

the patient's room and condoned and sorrowed 
with him. 

Verily, " as a man thinketh in his heart, so is 
he." 

Verily, good cheer and good thought are good 
medicines. 

And to these truths all good doctors say 
"Amen!" 



15. 



How often we see the pill fiend. In his vest 
pocket he has a small apothecary shop — a col- 
lection of round paste-board boxes 
The Pill 
Fiend. anc * little bottles. Every little while 

he dopes himself. If his stomach 
is on a strike, he pops in a pill. If his head aches, 
he takes a tablet. If he sneezes, he takes a cold- 
cure pill. 

When anyone around speaks of a pain or ache, 
he hands the person a pill. 

The pill eater is a hypochondriac, and very 
likely his doctor knows it. His salvation is that 
the doctor probably gives him harmless stuff in 
pill form. The patient doesn't know this, and 
it's like a rabbit's foot or a piece of pork rubbed 
on a wart — it satisfies the mind and nature 
makes the cure. 

Often, however, the pills are not innocent ; the 
pill fiend buys the tablets and pills direct from 
the druggist. The headache tablet is most likely 
one of the coal tar drugs like acetanilid, and that 
is positively harmful when taken too often. 

62 



THINK 63 

There are times to take pills — in cases of 
emergency, when you can shock nature with a 
poison and bring a wholesome reaction. 

These times are rare, and the doctor should 
be the sole judge as to when such treatment is 
necessary. 

Exercise, diet, correct habits of living will pre- 
vent the congestion and clogging-up that causes 
illness and pain. 

The pill habit is nothing less than a drug habit, 
and the drug habit positively weakens the sys- 
tem. The headache tablet does not 
Habft g "" * cure tne headache ; it only stops the 
pain; the evil is still there. The 
headache is merely nature's signal that some- 
thing is out of whack. 

Headaches are generally caused by stomach 
disorders, eye strain, or neuralgia; the latter in 
turn is caused by too much uric acid in the sys- 
tem. 

Eat fruit, drink plenty of water, and that will 
flush the system and stop stomachic headache. 

See the optician if it's eyes. If you have a fre- 
quent headache in the forehead, very likely it's 
the eyes, even though you do not suspect it. 

If it's neuralgia, get a corrective diet from the 
doctor. 



64 THINK 

I know scores of men, and women, too, who 
take pills enough to kill a person. Their systems 
have been educated up to it; they are saturated 
with poison. 

And the worst of it is they never get well while 
taking the pills ; it is only a temporary deadening 
of the pain. 

Then, there are many who take pills to make 
them sleep. That's a crime. It's self-murder by 
slow degrees, for they are surely shortening their 
lives by this poison dope pill habit. 

Mark this: Nature, and Nature alone, effects 
cures, and it's in very, very few instances that 
a poison pill can be used to ad- 
the Curer. vantage. You can keep well by 
getting good air, good water, good 
sunshine, good food, good exercise, good rest, 
good cheer and good thought. That is what I 
call my golden prescription, and it will do won- 
ders for you, and every doctor will tell you so. 

Pills kill, if you keep up the habit. There are 
no two ways about it. I say positively and 
knowingly that this pill habit is absolutely life 
shortening. 

Don't try to argue ; the evidence is unshakable 
on this point. 

If you could have seen the derelicts in the hos- 



THINK 65 

pitals that I have, if you could have seen the 
wretched bodies, destroyed nerve systems, the 
broken-down, emaciated, hopeless shells of men 
and women addicted to the baneful pill habit, 
you would be as positive as I am that pills kill 
if you keep up the habit. 

Life is sweet and precious to us all. Do not 
shorten it by taking pills and tablets for every 
ache or pain. Try nature's way. Realize that 
mental suggestion and will-power will drive away 
most pains or temporary aches. 

Brace up, cheer up; chuck the pills in the gar- 
bage can. 



16. 



There are two principal kinds of pleasures that 
man seeks; one is material pleasures, and about 
ninety-nine per cent of the human 
of Pleasures, family devote themselves to these. 
The remainder — the one per cent — 
seek mental pleasures, and this little group is 
the one that gets the real, lasting, satisfying and 
improving pleasures out of life. 

The material pleasures are the social pleasures 
of eating, displaying, possessing, and so forth. 
Material pleasures generate in the human the de- 
sire for fluff, feathers, and four-flushing. 

Material pleasures accentuate the desire to pos- 
sess things, and in the strife for possession, hearts 
are broken, fortunes wasted, nerves shattered, 
and the finer sentiments calloused. 

The homes where material pleasures abound 
are the ones where worry, neurasthenia and ner- 
vous prostration abound. 

Material pleasures are merely stimulants for 
the time being, and there always come the inter- 
mittent reflexes of gloom and depression. 

66 



THINK 67 

The desire to show off, to excite envy in others, 
is always present at the homes where material 
pleasures are the rule. 

Material pleasures call for crowds. Mental 
pleasures are best enjoyed in solitude. 

The material pleasure-seeker lives a life of con- 
vention, engagements, routine, strain, and high 
tension. 

The person who is so fortunate as to appreciate 

and follow mental pleasures is serene, natural, 

happy and content. A cozy room, 

Pleasures loved ones around, music, books, 

Are Best. « ... 

love and social conversation — 

those are mental pleasures; those are best. He 
who can pick up a book and read things worth 
while, gets satisfaction unknown to those whose 
life is a round of banquets, theaters, dances, auto- 
mobiles, parties, bridge, clubs and society doings. 

When you spend the evening playing cards, 
the chances are you come home late, and when 
you retire, it takes perhaps an hour or so before 
you fall to sleep. 

And during the night you dream of cards, of 
certain hands, of certain circumstances, or cer- 
tain persons who were prominent in the even- 
ing's game. 

The reason you do not go to sleep after an 



68 THINK 

exciting evening is that you have set your nerve 
carburetor at high tension and have forgotten to 
lower it before you go to sleep. 

On the other hand, when you have been read- 
ing a restful book, full of good thought, you es- 
tablish an equilibrium, a relaxed 
Reading. state oi nerves, and particularly, 
you have switched the current or 
direction of your day's thoughts. That change 
spells rest, and you retire and go to sleep easily. 

You will scarcely believe what a wondrous 
change for the better you will notice in yourself 
if you make it a rule to have a brain clearing, 
mental inventory, and nerve relaxation every 
night before you go to sleep. 

Your brain works at night always; oft-times 
you have no remembrance of your dreams, but 
if your last hour, before retiring, was an hour 
of excitement, tension or unusual occupation, you 
will likely go over it all again in your dreams. 

If you will let nothing prevent your evening 
period of soliloquy, you will establish your men- 
tal habits into a rhythm that will give you peace, 
rest and benefit. 

In the olden days, when most families had 
evening worship or family prayers, the members 
of those households slept soundly and restfully. 



THINK 69 

Particularly was this so because of the habit 
formed of getting the mind on peaceful, helpful, 
comforting, soul-satisfying thoughts that re- 
mained fresh on the brain tablets as the mem- 
bers of the home circle went to sleep. 

Too often the books read in the home circle 
are all of the exciting, fascinating, highly colored 
imaginative type. People read stories of love, 
adventure or crime, and they dream these same 
things almost every night. 

I have found that it pays to read two classes 
of literature in the same evening. First read 
your novel, story, or fascinating book, but fif- 
teen minutes before you are ready to go to sleep, 
read some good, wholesome, helpful, uplifting 
book, and that good stuff will be lastingly filed 
away in your brain. 

Finish your evening with books that are inter- 
esting, yet educational. Such books as " Life of 
the Bee " by Maeterlinck, or any 
Read. one °* Fabre's wonderful books on 

insect life; "Riddle of the Uni- 
verse" by Haeckel; Darwin's books; Drum- 
mond's " Ascent of Man; " " Walks and Talks in 
Geological Fields" is a splendid mental night 
cap; " Power of Silence; " " Physiology of Faith 
and Fear;" Emerson's "Essays;" Holmes' 



70 THINK 

" Autocrat of the Breakfast Table; " " Rubaiyat " 
of Omar Khayyam ; Tom Moore's Poems ; " Plu- 
tarch's lives ; " Seneca ; Addison ; Bulwer Lytton ; 
Hugo; Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus." This latter 
book will not fascinate you like Carlyle's " French 
Revolution," but you will learn to love its fine 
language, its fine analysis of character, of times, 
and of things. 

There are countless books of the good improv- 
ing kind. Always save one of them for your solid 
reading, after you have read light lit- 
Gain* ° U mature or novels. If you will get 
the habit, you will notice great bene- 
fits and rapid advancement in your mental equip- 
ment. You will sleep better, think clearer; 
you will learn to enjoy mental pleasures more 
than material pleasures. 

Fifteen minutes, then, to be yours, yours alone, 
in which you quiet, soothe, strengthen and pacify 
yourself and add abundant resources and assets. 

Let the last reading in the evening be some- 
thing worth storing up in that precious brain of 
yours, and the good, worth-while deposit will 
grow and produce beautiful worth-while mental 
fruit. 

Get the home reading habit. Don't overdo it. 
Call on friends; go to a good picture show once 



THINK 71 

in a while, to good concerts, to good 
Overdo It. P^ys, but do not make this going-out- 
in-the-evening-plan a habit. Let it 
be merely a dessert, or a rarity. Like candy and 
ice cream, it is proper and enjoyable when it is 
not overdone. 

The lover of books and home can enjoy the 
play, because he only goes to plays worth while, 
and he doesn't overdo it. 

The confirmed theater-goer is a pessimist; he 
roasts nearly every play, and he is universally 
bored. 

When you get started reading worth-while 
books on science, on history, on geography, on 
travel, on natural history, you tap an inexhausti- 
ble field of pleasure and satisfaction. 

At any time, you can pick up your book and 
be happy. 

Waits in railway stations will be opportunities ; 
trips on trains will be pleasant; evenings alone 
will be enjoyable, if you can get into a book you 
like.. 

Mental pleasures are best. 

Material pleasures are merely passing shad- 
ows — to be enjoyed for the brief moment before 
they disappear. 



17. 



The malady Verbomania is spreading rapidly. 
What's that? You have never heard of Verbo- 
mania? Well, then, it's taken from 
Verbomania. 7 „, , A . , 

verbosus, the Latin word meaning 

" abounding in words," the using of more words 
than is necessary. Mania, also Latin, means " to 
rage " — excessive or unreasonable desire. There- 
fore, Verbomania is the excessive desire to use 
more words than are necessary. 

There is too much talk nowadays and too little 
thinking. Some persons start their gab carbure- 
tors, and they talk and talk mechanically, with- 
out any effort spent in thinking. Just like walk- 
ing, the motion just goes by itself. 

Scientists have suggested that perhaps too 
much talking without thinking is a disease. I 
don't see that there is any perhaps about it. Dis- 
ease is an unnatural condition — a function of the 
mind or body out of its natural order of working. 

We know we can sit down and run ideas 
through our brain without words, and we can 
use a lot of words without ideas. 

72 



THINK 73 

You have read whole pages in a book without 
receiving an idea. One can rattle off words and 
not have ideas. When the fountain of words 
flows in a desert of ideas, it's Verbomania. 

People in all walks of life have the disease; 
they talk together too much without any reason 

other than to take up time or make 
Think More, „, - -.. . 

Talk Less. themselves at ease. Fink teas, re- 
ceptions and society functions are 
great rookeries for these Verbomania birds to 
gather and indulge in their gabfest. 

The pianist through long practice is able to 
play a difficult composition without thinking 
about it; it's automatic; it's habit in action. 

The society dodo bird is just as dexterous in 
spinning words without thought, as the pianist 
with his difficult piece. 

Our rapid mode of living, our conventions and 
customs are responsible for much of the Verbo- 
mania. 

I should like to take my Dictophone to a fussy 
" afternoon " and record the word evacuations, 
the footless conversation, the forced pleasantries, 
the set sentences that mingle into a hum and 
buzz. A wilderness of words in a barrenness of 
ideas. 

This abuse of the use of speech makes head- 



74 THINK 

aches, weariness, worry, unrest ; it saps strength, 
lowers pep, and lessens resistance. 

The cure for Verbomania is to keep away from 
these butterfly buzz bees; put the clothes-pin of 
caution on your lips ; spend more time alone 
with your thoughts. Nourish your idea plants 
that have been starved; prune your word plants. 

Don't expose yourself to the crowds where the 
Verbomaniacs gather. The disease is contagious ; 
it's easy to acquire and hard to retire. 

These are ideas put in type to convey a truth 
for the benefit of all who read these lines, and 
it is some truth, too. 



18. 



Love builds homes, gold builds houses. The 
home has a mongrel dog which is called Prince, 
and all the family love it. The house had a pedi- 
greed bull pup that is kept in the barn. 

There is all the difference between the family 

which has a home and the family which has a 

house. In houses we find broken 
House and , 
Home. hearts, worry, nervous prostration, 

because there is idleness, artificial- 
ity and aimlessness. In homes we find warm 
hearts, happiness and love, because those in the 
home have natural, helpful occupation. 

• In the house is cold reserve ; the occupants read 
when compelled to stay indoors; they grow 
crabbed and cross and get into a state of habitual 
dumbness and selfishness. 

In the home there is unselfishness, thoughtful- 
ness, and love expressed. Meal time is joy time ; 
it's the get-together period of smiling faces. 

In the house the breakfast table is merely a 
lunch station in the hurried trip from the bed- 
room to the office. 

75 



76 THINK 

The sensitive wife of the house gets stinging 
remarks that abide with her after the lord and 
master of the house has departed. 

In the home the family gets up plenty early 

enough. Songs and jokes, kisses and love pats 

are found; the family is on time, 

Home. a CS anc * there is happiness all around. 

Homes are sweet, because love is 

present. Houses built by gold are just hotels. 

Fve noticed the difference when a friend in- 
vites me to come to his home or to his house; 
the word he uses, home or house, indicates to 
me what I will find when I go there. 

In the house I meet a maid or butler at the 
door. I see conventional furniture, conventional 
rooms. I am shown into a conventional waiting 
room, and I wait conventionally for the hostess to 
come forward with a stiff backbone, a forced 
smile, and a languid handshake. 

When I go to a home built with love, I find a 
tidy dressed wife at the door, rosy children, and 
I get a warm, old-fashioned hand clasp, and a 
beaming, smiling face that spells welcome. 

And the dinner — that, too, tells the difference 
between the " depend-on-the-cook " establish- 
ment and the " wife-who-is-the-boss " home. 

At the house is formality and frigidity; at the 



THINK 77 

home is ease and enjoyment. The children of 
the home make breaks and we love them for 
it; it's natural instinct and frankness. 

In the house is worry; in the home is happi- 
ness. 

Verily, there's a difference in the atmosphere 
of the house built with gold and the home built 
with love; one is worthless existence, the other 
worth-while living. 



19. 



I haven't space in this book to give reasons or 
show proofs for everything I suggest, but I want 
right here to give you a few defi- 
Health n * te > short, positive, helpful rules 

Suggestions. about food ^ thought, habit and ex- 
ercise that will pay you the most wonderful divi- 
dends in health and happiness. 

First — Drink two or three glasses of warm, 
not hot, water, the first thing when you arise in 
the morning. 

Second — Repeat this resolve as you are drink- 
ing the water : " I will be pleasant this morning 
until ten o'clock, and the rest of the day will take 
care of itself." 

Third — Walk to your office or place of busi- 
ness, unless it is over four miles, in which case 
walk the first three miles and ride the remainder 
of the distance. 

Fourth — Eat one or two apples every day, and 
do not insult Nature's proper adjustment by peel- 
ing the apple. You want the skin because it has 
things in it you need for your body, and especially 

78 



THINK 79 

for your brain, and you have especial need of the 
roughage the skin gives. 

Fifth— Spend eight or nine hours a day in bed. 
I belong to the sixty-three hour club ; that means 
nine hours a day rest, seven days 
s f ee p G0Ug in a week, which is sixty-three 
hours. If, through business, travel 
or other circumstances, I stay up late one or two 
nights a week, I balance books before the week 
is up by taking a rest on Sunday afternoon or 
going to bed earlier one or two nights. 

Sixth — Don't stay in bed Sunday morning. It 
will make you tired, loggy, stupid and cross. Get 
up Sunday, say, a half hour or an hour later than 
week days. Later in the day take a nap if you 
wish. 

Seventh — Spend fifteen minutes just before go- 
ing to bed in quiet, relaxed solitude. This is the 
time to slow down your tension, relax your mus- 
cles and soothe your nerves. 

These rules you can easily remember and if 
you follow them as I hope you will, the red blood 
will course in your veins and joy will be in your 
countenance and the halo of happiness will be 
around your face. 



20. 



Every once in a while the human has a nega- 
tive day. Every act, thought, or spoken sen- 
tence has a but, a don't, a can't, or some other 
negative attachment to it. 

The children laugh, play and cut up in the 
morning, and mother says : " I don't know what 

I shall do with you, you are just 
The Negative . . „ „,,. , 

Attitude. wearing me out. This puts a fear- 
thought and a weakness-germ both 
in mother and the kiddies. 

On Sunday afternoon the family is resting. 
Mother maybe gets the blues, and says : " What's 
the use, I never get anywhere, go any place; it's 
just grind, work and worry all the time." 

Mother worries because there's a leak in the 
roof and the water stained the paper in the 
spare room. She worries because she lives in a 
rented house, and says : " I have no heart to fix 
things up because this is a rented house." 

This negative thought brings on a misery state ; 
it's worry, and the worry comes because you 
dwell on the off side of things. You rehearse 

80 



THINK 81 

your problem, you go over your work, you count 
your obstacles, and you pile up the negative and 
fear thoughts. 

Bless you, my dear sister, I know what this 
negative can't, don't, but, and what's-the-use 
thought is and how it brings misery. I know 
how the children get on your nerves and make 
you say " don't " all day to them. 

There's only one way to drive out this nega- 
tive thought and that is to switch your will power 
to the positive current. Next time 
Positive Side. vou have a negative day and the fear 
thoughts come, just start in one by 
one and count your blessings of health, bless- 
ings of home, and blessings of love. 

Nothing can hurt you. You've been through 
these negative days time and time again; the 
clouds gathered, you were blue, lonesome, home- 
sick and heartsick, but next day you got busy 
with work, and occupation drove away the clouds, 
and the sunshine came. The next Sunday you 
get in this negative state, just put on your hat 
and go out to see some neighbor, or go to the 
park, or take a walk. 

Don't sit and stew and fret over your magni- 
fied troubles. 

Let the children play and laugh; they are not 



82 THINK 

hurting anyone. God bless them. They don't 
have worries; their little lives are all too short. 
Their example of smiles and laughter should 
make you happy. Soon, too soon, they will grow 
up and go their ways in life and how precious 
will be the memories of their carefree, golden, 
happy childhood days. 

Cut out envy; that's a mighty bad negative 
wire. It's the devil's favorite food to make worry 
and discontent. 

Many of the people you envied in the past 

are dead and buried. Many of the people you 

envy now are at heart miserable, and 

Wo V rry MakeS y ou wouldn't envy them if you could 

look through the artificial outside and 

know their real hidden thoughts and lives. 

" What's-the-use " — that's a bad thing to say; 
it plants worry seed. 

You are all right; you have far more blessings 
than sorrows. You can never be entirely free 
from troubles, care or little irritations. 

Rise superior to these things ; those around you 
are affected by and susceptible to your influence 
and example. 

If you have a " but," an " if " or a " don't * tied 
to every command to your children, they will 
recognize your uncertainty and your negative, 



THINK 83 

hurtful attitude, and they will take your threats, 
as well a9 your promises, with a grain of salt. 

Be careful in giving commands; don't put a 
Spanish bit in the children's mouths to jerk them 
and torture them. 

Be positive, make your promises and orders 
stick, and the kiddies v/ill soon know you mean 
what you say. 

These negative " driving me crazy " attach- 
ments to your commands spell weakness, and 

make you drive, cajole and spin out 
Exposing 
Your your orders, and the children hesitate 

and are slow to obey. Let them see 

your positive side. Let them learn to obey with 

a " yes, mamma " spirit, and your orders will be 

less frequent, shorter, and they will be obeyed 

on the instant. 

The kiddies learn to size you up, mamma, and 
if they see a wobbly, worried, despondent, unsure 
attitude in you, they will discount your threats 
and make allowances, saying : " That's mamma's 
way." 

Don't show your cry side but show your smile 
side. 

Sunday is a great trial day for you, mamma, 
but don't let your negative wires get the best 
of you. 



84 THINK 

Sing as you make the beds and tidy up; let 
sunshine in and drive out the gloom. 

Blue Sundays are horror days for the children ; 
you can't expect them to sit still like older folks. 
They are full of red blood and active muscles. 

Don't make Sunday a day of punishment to 
your children. They get their cue from you. 
Don't you be negative and cross and gloomy. 
It's bad business for you and all the family. 



21. 



The benefits of walking are so quickly appar- 
ent that I hope to get you to make the start and 
keep it up for two weeks. Then you will require 
no further urging. 

In walking, there are two most important 
things to do in order to get the greatest benefits : 
first — walk alone ; second — walk 
Exercise. your natural gait. So many people 

tell me they would like to walk all, 
or part of the way, between their home and office 
if they had company. 

Company is the very thing you don't want in 
walking, and there are two reasons for this. One 
is, if you walk with a friend, you will hold your- 
self back, or else you will be walking faster than 
your natural gait. In either case it is a conscious 
effort, and this conscious effort, to a large degree, 
will cause you to lose much of the benefit from 1 
your walk. 

The most important reason, however, is that 
if you walk with a friend, you are sure to talk, 
and thus you are using your nervous energy and 

85 



86 THINK 

tiring your brain — the very thing you want to 

avoid. 

Walking gives you physical exercise which is 

absolutely necessary for health. It Is the best 

exercise I know of, because you do 
Walk 
Not Talk. n °t overdo your strength. Walking 

is beneficial, because when you walk 
alone, you give your brain a rest. You cannot 
read the papers, you cannot talk, and your men- 
tal apparatus gets complete rest. 

I recommend that you walk anywhere from 
three to four miles in the morning. If your home 
is more than four miles from the office, walk 
three or four miles of the distance and then take 
the car. 

Do not walk home in the evening unless the 
walk is a short one. In the evening you are 
tired, and you should conserve your strength. 
In the morning you are fresh, and the exercise/ 
comes to you at a time it is most needed. It will 
give you strength and courage, and help to keep 
you in a good mood all day. 

I cannot too strongly emphasize the impor- 
tance of walking alone, for it is then that you 
shift your nerve energy from the dry cell battery 
of the brain to the magneto, which is the spinal 
cord. The spinal cord works automatically and 



THINK 87 

it doesn't wear itself out. The brain tires if it 
uses its energy. 

In walking you use the thought and the brain 
impulse to start the magneto, and then the spinal 
cord action is automatic. 

This automatic action of the spinal cord is a 
wise provision of nature to conserve strength. 

The spinal cord energy is what you might call 
automatic habit. 

For instance, in dressing and undressing your- 
self, you will recall that you put on or take off 
your clothes in regular order without giving the 
matter any thought. It is just habit. 

If you wish to demonstrate the difference be- 
tween the control of the physical body by brain 
impulse, and the spinal cord impulse, try this 
some morning: Start out for your exercise and 
mentally frame sentences like this as you walk 
— " right step, left step, right step, left step," and 
so on. Give thought to each step you have taken, 
and notice how tired you will be when you have 
gone half a mile. 

The next morning, start to walk naturally ; give 
no thought to walking; keep your mind on the 
beauties of nature which you are passing, or 
indulge in pleasant soliloquy, and you will feel 
no fatigue. 



88 THINK 

There isn't a bit of theory in this chapter; it is 
positive, practical sense that I have proved by 
my own experiences and by the experiences of 
everyone to whom I have made this suggestion 
of walking alone. 

The moral is this — walk every morning and 
walk ALONE. 



22. 



The body is made up of billions of little cells. 
These individual cells are in a state of perpetual 
activity. They exhaust, wear away, break down 
with work, and rebuild on food and rest. Every 
process of life — the beat of the heart, the throb 
of the brain in thought, the digestion of food, the 
excretion of waste — all are due to the activity 
of groups of highly specialized individual cells. 

Every cell uses up its own material and throws 
off poisonous by-products during activity. These 
by-products, or wastes, are very poi- 
Waste. sonous to the individual cell as well 

as to the entire organism. To get 
rid of this waste is one of the first duties of the 
system. 

It is with the body, made up of its countless 
millions of individual cells, just as it is with a city 
and its myriad people: the sewage of the com- 
munity must be collected and disposed of. The 
city forms its poisons which we call sewage and 
the body its poisons, which we call excreta (or 
carbonic acid, urea, uric acid, faeces, etc.). It 

89 



90 THINK 

is no more important for a city to gather up and 
get ride of its poisonous sewage than for the ani- 
mal organism to collect and excrete its cell-waste. 
Hence, the importance of maintaining normal and 
constant elimination throughout the body. 

Elimination is kept up by the alimentary tract, 

the kidneys, the skin, and the lungs. These four 

are the great pipe-line sewerage sys- 

Safety-First. terns, so to speak, by which the body 

throws off its gaseous, liquid and 

solid poisons. 

The lungs momentarily strain carbonic acid 
out of the blood and throw it out in the expired 
air. They likewise exhale other noxious matters 
from the system. 

The alimentary tract throws off faeces, made 
up of the waste tissue from the whole system, 
especially the digestive organs, as well as indi- 
gestible and non-nutritious portions of the food. 

The kidneys strain out urea, uric acid, and cer- 
tain other poisons from the blood and eject them 
through the urinary tract. 

Finally the skin likewise is an excretory organ 
and exhales a very definite amount of gaseous and 
fluid waste in the course of each twenty-four 
hours. 

The skin throws off all the way from a pint to 



THINK 91 

two quarts of liquid each day in the form of vapor. 

Thus, to carry on normal elimination from the 
body, the breathing, digesting, urinary and cuta- 
neous systems must be kept working 
Functioning, normally. To impair the work of any 
of these is to retard bodily drainage. 
To make certain that elimination is going on nat- 
urally, it is necessary to secure perfect function- 
ing of lungs, bowels, kidneys and the skin. 

Any stoppage in the process of elimination 
means that some fault has crept into the work of 
one of these excretory systems. It must be plain 
now why a disorder of any one of these organs 
of elimination means so much more profound dis- 
turbance to the whole organization than merely 
disease in one structure. It means that waste 
products are retained which ought to be thrown 
out of the body; so straightway every cell in the 
body begins to be more or less affected. Some 
poisons disturb one organ more and some another, 
but in the end the whole body must inevitably 
be affected. 

Lack of exercise, bolting of food, eating soft, 
starchy things, failure to chew properly, failure 
to get enough roughage, insufficient water, insuf- 
ficient fruit — these are the general causes of 
stoppage in the elimination processes. 



92 THINK 

Drink one or two glasses of warm water, not 
hot, the first thing in the morning. 

Eat one or two apples, skins and all, every day. 
Eat toast, especially the crust. Eat cracked 
wheat or whole wheat bread often. 

Exercise plenty. Keep cheerful. Eat regularly. 

Very likely you eat too much. You don't need 
three big meals a day unless you work outdoors 
at hard physical labor. 

Your body is an engine. No use to keep the 
boiler red hot and two hundred pounds of steam 
on if your work is light. 

Good health depends upon proper assimilation 
and elimination as nature intended. 

Eat less, exercise more, you who work indoors. 
If you don't use this caution, you are just slowly 
killing yourself. 



23. 



Many have the habit of keeping their minds 
on their weaknesses or their shortcomings. If 
they read of some one doing a great 
"Ca?t.' ,ay thing or making a worth-while ac- 
complishment, they say : " I never 
could do such a thing/' 

These persons are always saying, " I never have 
luck. I can't do this. I can't do that." 

Always knocking, always thinking " can't " in- 
stead of " can " makes for fear, irresoluteness, 
uncertainty and weakness of character. 

To say, " I can't, I haven't the ability, I am 
unlucky" makes you weak and knocks out all 
chance for doing things, 

Nothing comes out of the brain that wasn't 
burned in by thought. If you disparage your- 
self, belittle your capacity, or drown your good 
impulses with doubt and self-accusation, you are 
putting away a lot of bad thought in your brain, 
and no wonder you will lack in initiative, ambi- 
tion, confidence and courage. 

To those who claim to be unlucky, I want to 
93 



94 THINK 

say you are not unlucky — you simply lack pluck. 

You start at undertakings with a handicap of 
fear. You have made up your mind that you 
can't accomplish. You are half beaten before the 
game starts. In place of the will to achieve, you 
approach your task in fear and trepidation. In 
place of confidence and courage and high aspira- 
tions, you set out on your journey with the mill- 
stone of doubt and irresolution around your neck. 

There is but one way to succeed. That is to 
cast fear and self-accusation aside, and throw 

your full weight into the struggle 
Confidence .,- -. , c 

and Success. wlth a son g on y° ur 1]l P s and confi- 
dence in your heart. " Victory " 
should be your battlecry and " Confidence " 
should be emblazoned on your shield. 

Many a man has been whipped in a fight, de- 
feated in a contest, or beaten at an undertaking, 
but he didn't show it or let the other fellow know 
it. He just kept on with a brave front, and finally 
the other fellow quit, mistaking grim determina- 
tion, pluck and perseverance for strength and vic- 
tory. 

Ethan Allen with his handful of men were 
asked to surrender by the British general with 
his superior force. By all the rights and rules 
of war, Ethan was licked, but he didn't give in. 



THINK 95 

He replied: "Surrender h — 11; I've just com- 
menced to fight." If Ethan had accused himself 
and said, " I can't whip that big bunch; there's 
no hope," he would have been whipped to a finish. 

Don't show the enemy or the world your weak T 
ness. Don't admit anything impossible that is 
capable of accomplishment. 

It's the " I can " man who wins. No man ever 
won a fight if he started out by saying, " I can't 
whip him, he is too much for me ; I am no match 
for him, but I'll try." 

No person ever made success in business if he 
started in with uncertainty, lack of confidence 
and unbelief in his ability. Confidence has ever 
been half the battle. 

Knock yourself, and the world will accept you 

at your own estimate. Show streaks of yellow 

cowardice, and the mob will pounce 
The World's ri . . , 

Judgment. on y° u llke a P ack of hungry wolves. 

Accuse yourself, curse your luck, be- 
little your worth, be afraid, and you will remain 
a mere bump on a log, unnoticed, uninteresting, 
uninvited. 

The world welcomes men who do things, The 
world judges by outward appearances. If your 
heart is sick, if your courage is low, don't show 
it. Put up a stiff attitude and act with confi- 



96 THINK 

dence, and that attitude will carry you over many 
a pitfall and past many an obstacle. 

Show strength and the world will help you; 
show weakness and the world will shun you. 

You are prejudiced when it comes to judging 
yourself. You compare your weakness with your 
friends' strength, and this comparison is unfair; 
it makes you lose confidence. 

Nothing hurts one worse than doubting one's 

own ability, assets, and character. When you 

find yourself experiencing doubt, or 

Belief. inability, or hard luck, turn square 

around and say : " Begone, doubt ; 

henceforth I have belief." 

Say : " I have ability ; I have pluck, and pluck 
means luck." 

Always express confidence, faith, courage, and 
cheer thoughts, whether you feel them or not. 
Do this heroically and persistently, and soon the 
fear shadows and weakness feelings will leave 
you, and you will be in reality strong, courageous, 
active, and will do things you never thought pos- 
sible. 

"Asa man thinketh, so is he." Always re- 
member that. 

Get hold of your thoughts ; make yourself think 
up, and have faith and courage. Hold to your 



THINK 97 

resolve, and the whole world will change. You 
will prosper, you will have poise, and every once 
in a while happiness will come as a reward. 

No man will be more surprised at your com- 
plete change of attitude and character than your- 
self. 

Your problems can only be solved by yourself. 
Friends can advise, I can suggest, but YOU must 
act. 

Henceforth, never accuse yourself, never feel 
sorry for your condition or position, cut out fear 
thoughts, — be strong. 

Think faith, courage, cheer, confidence, and 
strength, and by-and-by the habit will be fixed 
and natural. 

This is as certain truth as I have ever experi- 
enced. I know it. I've tried it. I've watched 
others and the results are always good. 

Don't be passive and forget this chapter. Start 
right this minute to THINK RIGHT. 

And you will never regret and never forget this 
chapter on Self-accusation. 



24. 



The great colleges turn out thousands of gradu- 
ates each year, and the great newspapers have 

much sport ridiculing them in funny 
Dare to . . ,-, 

Dream. pictures. Every great man was once 

a boy with a dream, and that dream 

came true because the boy had pep that made him 

stick to his ambition and kept him from being 

discouraged because of ridicule or obstacles. 

Thomas Carlyle, the poor Scotch tutor, 
dreamed he wanted to be a great author. His 
clothes were threadbare, his poverty apparent. 
Friends taunted and ridiculed him until, goaded 
to indignation, he cried : " I have better books 
in me than you have ever read." The crowd 
laughed incredulously and said : " Poor fellow, 
he's batty." 

Carlyle stuck to his dream and the world has 
the "History of Frederick the Great" and the 
" French Revolution " and "Sartor Resartus." 
When he had finished the manuscript of the 
" French Revolution," a careless maid built a fire 
with it. He wasn't discouraged, but went to 

98 



THINK 99 

work and wrote it over again and very likely bet- 
ter than he wrote it the first time. 

Bonaparte in the garden of his military school 
dreamed of being a great general. He stuck to 
his dream and he realized his hopes. 

Joseph Pulitzer, a poor emigrant, crawled in a 
cellar way in New York to sleep, and he dreamed 
of owning a great newspaper. His dream came 
true, and the newspaper is printed in a building 
erected on the spot where he dreamed in the 
cellar way. 

Livingston dreamed of exploring darkest Af- 
rica ; his dream came true. 

Edison dreamed of great electrical discoveries. 
His monument is Menlo Park with its great la- 
boratories. 

Ford dreamed of making an automobile for the 
purse-limited masses — he was jeered ; to-day the 
world cheers him. 

My friend, Bert Perrine, was chucked off a 
stage in the middle of Idaho's great sage brush 
desert. He said to the driver, " Some day I'll own 
that stage and I'll use it for a chicken house." 

He dreamed and schemed, and to-day the des- 
ert is the famous Twin Falls country, blossoming 
like a rose. And on his beautiful ranch at Blue 
Lakes, that old stage is used for a chicken house. 



100 THINK 

Rockefeller dreamed, Lincoln dreamed — so 
did Garfield, Wilson, Grant, Clay, Webster, Mar- 
shall Field, Richard W. Sears and all the other 
men who have done things worth while in the 
world. 

The great West is the result of dreams come 
true. 

Dream on, my boy; hitch your wagon to a 
star and stay hitched. That dream and that de- 
termination are the things that are to carry you 
over obstacles, past thorny Ways, and through 
criticism, jeers and ridicule. 

Your time will come. Dream and scheme, and 
make your ideals materialize into living, pulsat- 
ing realities. 



25. 



There are many persons who act and advocate 
ideals merely for effect — they are hypocrites. 

Here's a little true heart story that probably 
passed unnoticed except to a very few persons. 

Little Spencer Nelson, a poor boy, eight years 

old, recently died in a hospital with a little bank 

clasped to his breast. The bank held 
Real 
Charity. $3.41 in pennies which the boy had 

saved to buy presents for the poor 

children in his city. 

The little hero had fought manfully through 
three months' suffering, enduring the torture of 
five lacerating operations. The pain failed to 
dim the spirit of unselfishness which burned 
brightly and clearly in his tired, fever-racked 
body. 

After each operation his mind became more 
securely fixed on his project to help bring cheer 
to poor children. 

The little savings bank was his companion, 
and each visitor was asked to contribute to his 
fund. 

101 



102 THINK 

Three hours before he died, a smile beautified 
his thin wasted face as the nurse dropped a dime 
in his bank. His last Words — a message to his 
mother — were in a scarcely audible whisper, 
asking her to remember to use the money to 
make poor children happy. 

That was real charity ; that boy had no hypoc- 
risy in his heart. 

The daily paper chronicles instances of sen- 
sational charity, where men vie with each other 

to see who can give most and get 
Seek and s 5 

You Will the most advertising. These men 

overlook the wonderful opportunities 
at their door — they do not realize the beauti- 
ful love and charity that would stir in their 
hearts if they would but look into the out-of-the- 
way places and get direct connection with pain 
and suffering. 

Little Spencer looked from his cot and saw the 
suffering of other little children and he wanted 
to help them, and the very resolve and impulse 
made him forget his own pain and misery. 

In the Book of Good Deeds, the name of Spen- 
cer Nelson will be recorded as a sweeter act of 
charity than any million-dollar gift to a great in- 
stitution. 

What one of you who read these lines can 



THINK .103 

read the story of that little hero and not be 
touched by the generous love and beautiful con- 
ception of charity he possessed. 

I don't believe much in this far-away charity 
idea so many have. 

I believe in helping those near where I am 

rather than sending money to Siam. Poverty and 

destitution, unhappily, are familiar 

Do Good ' , ,_ rs 

Here At spectres at home, as elsewhere. He 
who seeks to do good will not need to 
range afar. He can find opportunity close at 
home, near by, where all of us can find it if we 
only look. 

It may be a pleasurable sensation for you to 
contribute fifty dollars to a missionary scheme 
in Siam, and get the Missionary report of the 
budget made up by the committee for the foreign 
missionary fund. 

I know that a bucket of coal in an empty stove, 
a basket of bread and a liberal hunk of round 
steak to the starving family around the corner 
brings the donor a better sensation. 

Take a trip to the hospitals, learn about the 
homes of the suffering patients in the charity 
ward, and you will resolve it's a better act to 
send flour to the poor than flowers to the rich. 

Little Spencer Nelson had the right idea of 



104 THINK 

charity : definite, immediate help to those he could 
reach right where he was, rather than sending 
money to sufferers far, far away. 

Let your gifts be principally flour and beef; 
they help those who need help. Flowers are all 
right in their place, but there are more places 
where flour can be used to better purpose. 

I'm keener for filling the coffee can of my suf- 
fering neighbor than filling the coffers of the big 
charity five thousand miles away. 

I try to help both ways, but the home help 
pays the bigger dividends. What do you think 
about it? 



26. 



You have found a friend who has been so 
much help and comfort to you. I have such a 
friend too. To-night I am in the mood to think 
of that friend and write him a letter like this: 

This is to You. It is for You. It is about 

You. You I have in mind and the good influence 

you have had on me. It is a happi- 
What I 3 rr 

Think of ness and satisfaction to know you, 

and to bask in the sunshine of you. 

The world is better because of you. You have 
helped to raise the average. 

You and your goodness — you do not appreci- 
ate what that means. You are so modest, so 
loath to think of yourself, so thoughtful of others, 
so unselfish that I must tell you of you and about 
you. 

You have a warm heart that throbs for others' 
woes and holds sympathy. The great world is 
cold, selfish, and cares little for others. But you 
are different; you are a great pillow of rest on 
which I and others who love you may lay our 
tired, weary heads, and you wrap your arms of 
105 



106 THINK 

friendship and goodness about us and feel our 

very heartbeats. 

You with your great goodness, your quiet, 

sympathetic understanding — you soothe our 

troubled spirits and make us glad of 
What I Love , , , , _« 

in You. y° u anc * gted we have the precious 

privilege of knowing you. 

Even now, as I am telling you how I love 
you, you are trying to wave me aside and stop 
me, but I am in the mood and I want to express 
myself. You know that it is a great sin of 
omission to refrain from expressing our grati- 
tude for goodness extended to us. 

I want to express my gratitude. I do not 
want to be guilty of the sin of omission. 

So here, then, is this little message for you, 
to tell you that I appreciate you and love you, 
and these words will last after you are gone and 
after I am gone, to tell those of to-morrow about 
you and what those of to-day thought about you. 

Your life, your goodness, is an everlasting plant 
that will flourish in many hearts. Your influ- 
ence will last beyond the calendar of time; it 
is indestructible. You have a great credit in the 
universal bank of good deeds, where you have 
deposited worth-while acts, deeds, kindnesses, 
cheer, help, friendship, sympathy, courage, grati- 



THINK 107 

tude, and all the most precious jewels of human- 
ity. 

I am happy the very moment I think of you. 
I try to express myself but the feelings and 
emotions I would describe have not words or 
sentences to express them. You understand. 
You are so big in heart, so sensitive in fabric 
of feeling, so wise in understanding, that I want 
you to think and feel all the genuine, noble, lov- 
able, appreciative thoughts you can gather to- 
gether about the one you can most appreciate. 

Think hard, sincerely, deeply, about that one, 
with all your resources of beautiful thought. 
Think hard that way, and now you will begin 
to understand my feelings about you, and how 
I appreciate you. 

You, my inspiration, who are so sensitized to 
feeling, so delicately adjusted to read heart vibra- 
tions — you must feel this within me that I am 
trying to express. Not the love between sweet- 
hearts, not the love of kin, not the love of friends, 
but a great universal love I have for you — a 
love which all who are fortunate enough to know 
you have for you. 

It is a love you cannot return to me in equal 
measure, because you have not the object in me 
that can merit such love. That you should love 



108 THINK 

me in the way I love you even in the smallest 
measure is satisfaction supreme. 

It is glorious to know you. You water the 
good impulses I have; you encourage all that is 
noble, elevating, and bettering, in me. I shall 
try to be like you — that is, so far as I can. You 
are my model ; there is but one You. Many may 
copy you, none may equal you. You my com- 
fort, you my joy. A great glorious You that 
a little / am trying to paint a picture of. 

How futile my efforts. I might as well try 
to improve the deep beautiful colors of the morn- 
ing-glory, or try to retint the lily with a more 
beautiful white. 

And so I bid you good-bye, happy that there 
is such a one as you in the world — more happy 
that I know you, and most happy that I know 
how to appreciate you. 

The sum of all good things I can say is, " I 
love you," and the word " love " I use in its 
greatest, broadest sense, which covers all the 
good adjectives. 

This is what I think of YOU. 



27. 



There is a time in the business man's life, be- 
tween the age of 48 and 52, when he undergoes 
a pronounced change. 

More big men are cut off at 50 than at any 
other age between 45 and 60. 

From 48 to 52 most men change vitally in 
their physical and mental make-up. 

Many men — hitherto straight, moral men — 
go to the bad at this time, and per contra, many 
men quit their immoral and health- 
MiddfeVife. hurting habits and change to moral 
men. This danger period is when the 
newly-rich find fault with the wives who have 
helped them to their success. They grow tired 
of their wives and seek the companionship of 
younger women. 

The divorce courts give most interesting fig- 
ures on this point. 

At this danger period, men who have been 
high livers, voracious eaters and heavy drinkers 
find themselves victims of diabetes, Bright's dis- 
ease or other forms of kidney trouble. The 
109 



110 THINK 

country is full of prematurely broken-down men 
who have failed to heed the danger signals along 
their way, To persist in self-indulgence is to 
invite disaster. You must deliberately set about 
to change your mode of living if you would avoid 
these shoals on which so many men of middle 
age have foundered. 

Almost every man between 48 and 52 who 
works indoors, eats too much, exercises too little, 
sleeps insufficiently. 

In this book I have made practical suggestions 
that have been tried in the furnace of experience 
and proven adequate. They have helped me; 
they will help you. They will enable you to 
gain pep and efficiency ; they will give you a new 
lease on life and make life more worth living. 

First, live simply; eat simply. If you have in 
the past, eaten rich foods, drunk fine wines, and 
have been what the world knows as a 
Life. imP 6 " g°°d fellow,'' your course is clear. 
You must call a halt on yourself. 
This path leads inevitably to the graveyard. Fol- 
low the seven simple health suggestions laid 
down in an earlier chapter, and you will feel bet- 
ter, feel happier and will attack the day's work 
with vim and vigor. 

Avoid undue excitement. Excitement uses up 



THINK 111 

nerve force. It is an energy consumer. Your 
mind needs repose as well as your body. When 
you have finished your day's work, leave busi- 
ness behind you. Do not drag it into your home. 
In the evening, occupy yourself with a good, 
worth-while book. Nothing is more conducive 
to calm and contentment. 

Let supper be your one hearty meal of the day. 
And after supper, play with the kids or joke 
with your wife ; get a smile on your face. When 
you are home, interest yourself in home con- 
cerns. The " home men " are the men who live 
longest. They lead healthy, regular lives, and 
they keep alive the outside interests that make 
for peace, poise, content and happiness. 

Keep a sharp look-out for tendencies to change 
your habits and morals. 

At 50 you are walking on thin ice; look out, 
danger is near. 

After you are 55, your habits are pretty well 
established. If you have lived rightly till then, 
you're safe thereafter and very likely are on your 
way to a good ripe old age if you take reason- 
able care of yourself. 



28. 



We love our own the best; maybe that's why 
we indulge our own too much. Our duty to our 

boys; that's a subject as old as the 

Our Sons. , .,, , .^ . 

hills, and it is as important as it is 

old. It is a subject that has come to the fore- 
front in recent years. Multitudes of paid ju- 
venile workers and sociological experts through- 
out the country are engaged in the work of keep- 
ing the youth of the nation healthily occupied 
and away from corrupting influences. 

Modern conditions have created a " boy prob- 
lem " which was unknown two generations ago. 
Then there were no slums reeking with vice 
and squalor and ugliness. The era of great manu- 
facturing enterprises was just beginning. There 
were no densely populated cities numbering mil- 
lions of souls. Amusements were simple. Every- 
where were stretches of open country, and boys 
were allowed to run wild in field and woodland 
and stream. 

The great cities of to-day have done away with 
all this. The good, old-fashioned, healthful re- 
112 



THINK 113 

creations have disappeared in all but 
aSSeS" 6 ro»l communities. In their place 
has come the lurid "movie" with 
its tales of crime and violence and passion. At 
every crowded street corner, vice beckons, and 
glaring signs lure the curious boy into the vi- 
cious cabaret and dance-hall. 

To-day I had the boy problem forcibly pre- 
sented to me. I saw in a court twenty-four boys 
who had been brought before the Judge charged 
with petty crimes. Three were sent to the peni- 
tentiary, seven to the reform school and fourteen 
let go temporarily on good behavior. 

A friend of mine interested in criminology 
tells me the great bulk of hold-ups, thefts, bur- 
glaries and murders are committed by boys be- 
tween 16 and 22 years of age. 

These twenty-four boys I mentioned were just 
ordinary boys, capable of making good citizens 
if they had had the right kind of home treatment 
and surroundings. Most of them got in trouble 
through their association with the " gang " or 
the " bunch," or the " crowd," and this because 
daddy didn't have his hand on the rein. 

That boy must have companionship; he must 
have a confidant with whom he can share his 
joys, his sorrows, his hopes, his ambitions. If 



114 THINK 

he doesn't get this comeraderie at home, he gets 
it " 'round the corner." 

We know where the boy is when he is at school, 
but how few of us know the boy's doings between 
times. 

Pool halls tempt the boys, and these resorts 
are breeding places where filthy stories, crimi- 
nal slang and evil practices are hatched. 

Pool halls and saloons invite and fascinate the 
boy. He sees the lights. There is a keen plea- 
sure in watching the pink-shirted dude with 
cigarette in his mouth making fancy shots. 

There is no one to nag him or bother him; it 
gets to be his "hang-out," and soon he drifts 
into a crowd that knows the trail to the red- 
light district. 

Painted fairies dazzle the giddy boy. It takes 
money to go the pace. Crime is gilded over with 
slang words. Stealing is called " easy money." 
Robbery is " turning a trick," and so on. 

A boy becomes what he lives on mentally and 
physically; that's the net of it. 

It is a common saying, but a good one, that 
the boys of to-day are the men of to-morrow. 
If you train a boy with care and kindness, he 
will grow up to be an honest and upright citizen. 
But let him run a wild, undisciplined course, 



THINK 115 

leave him free to explore the crime-spots and 
plague-pools of the city, and sooner or later his 
moral fibre is weakened and ultimately snaps. 
At best he will become an indifferent citizen; 
at worst a drifter or a criminal. 

There is nothing better for a boy than disci- 
pline properly administered. And that brings up 
the whole matter of army life. 

The army is a great maker and developer of 

men. Boys who were headed for perdition have 

found in the army a new sense of honor and 

respect. The rigorous training, the 
The Army: 
A Maker idea of duty, the heroic traditions of 

the service — all these are renewers 

and rekindlers of manhood. Many a lad who 

has wasted his health, wealth and substance on 

the primrose path, has " come back " gloriously 

in the service of the flag. 

Look at the average soldier or sailor you meet. 
His skin is tanned by sun and wind to a deep 
brown. His eyes are crystal clear. There is 
youth and strength in his tread. There he stands, 
clean as a whistle. No fat, no flabbiness — just 
solid sinew and ruddy health. He is a living ex- 
ponent of what military training can do for every 
boy in the country. 

Hard work, strength-building exercises, sum- 



116 THINK 

cient sleep, regular hours, simple, wholesome 
food, systematic training — these are the things 
the army and navy offers. And these are the 
things that make real men. 

But no training that school or church or army 
can give him relieves you, Dad, of your obliga- 
tion to the boy. In the last analysis, it is your 
influence that will either make him or break him, 
for it is to you that he looks for guidance and 
comradeship in his most impressionable years. 

If you are his chum, if sister shares his amuse- 
ments with him, if the family work and live on 
the " all for one and one for all " basis, if the 
boy is kept busy and interested, he can be easily 
trained. 

Neglect him and he will neglect you. Love 
him and he will love you. Meet him half way, 
he's impressionable. Show him a 
Copying. kindness, he will respond. Show him 
a good example, he will follow. You 
have to be with him, or know where he is every 
minute. 

During his period of adolescence, say from 
twelve or thirteen years to sixteen or seventeen, 
that boy is a mass of plaster of paris, easily 
shaped while plastic, but once set, all but impos- 
sible to recast. 



THINK 117 

That's the time, Dad, you must be on YQUR 
job with your boy. 

Your counsel, example, love, interest and teach- 
ing will MAKE the boy. 

Think of these things, Dad, and think hard, 
and think hard NOW. To-morrow may be too 
late. 



29. 



Our daughters — how much we love them! 
How happy we are to have their fresh, smiling 
faces about us! Their girlish laugh- 
Daughters. ter lightens our home hours and cre- 
ates an atmosphere of joy. What 
would we not give if we could but insure their 
happiness! Our fondest and most cherished 
hopes are bound up in them as they grow up 
under our eyes and blossom into womanhood. 

Girl, what a wonderful creature you can be. 
What a glorious success you can make of your 
life if you get the right start, find the right hands 
to help you, the right hearts to love you, and the 
right eyes to watch you, the right thoughts to 
make you, and the right ideals to guide you. 

There are so many influences to spoil you — 
so much convention, so much artificiality, so 
much snobbery, so much caste, so much foolish 
frivolity. 

Then there are the wrong examples, the wrong 
grooming, the wrong environments, the wrong 
influences surrounding you. Really, it is not to 
118 



THINK 119 

be wondered at why so many girls lose their 
heads and make a fizzle of their young lives. 

The fizzle is generally made because daddy and 
mama have a lot of foolish notions about bring- 
ing up girls. Especially is this so if the parents 
are wealthy. 

Here is the history of many a rich girl: She 
is born without welcome, fed on a bottle, reared 
by a nurse, grows up in a nursery, 
Way. r ° ng becomes estranged from her mother; 
later on, she is sent away to school, 
mixes with a lot of other rich girls, gets lots of 
foolish notions, false estimates, and prejudiced 
views. She graduates and comes home, and then, 
to commemorate the event, there are a lot of 
" doings " which she attends. Following this is 
the show-off, which is called a debut. 

She is exhibited like a filly at the horse show, 
and some high-collared young man wins her 
head, although she thinks it's her heart. She 
believes it is the proper time for her to marry, 
and he is such " a swell fellow," he is such " good 
company," and he " dances so well " — these 
qualities win her head. 

So the girl marries and has children ; the hus- 
band goes broke, and the girl awakens to the 
necessity of coming down from her pedestal, fac- 



120 THINK 

ing stern necessity, and raising her children as 
her mother should have raised her. 

That's the picture of the poor rich girl whose 
parents are to blame for the nonsense she 
crammed into her head. 

But, you, Girl — you are going to learn your 
cooking on a gas range instead of a chafing dish ; 
you'll learn to bake bread before fudge; you'll 
learn how to cook solids before you learn to make 
salads. 

You will combine simplicity, sentiment, sense, 
sereneness, sweetness, rather than envy, frills, 
feathers and foolishness. 

God's noblest calling for woman is the raising 
of children and the founding of a home. 

To cook and sew is a higher duty and better 
occupation than bridge parties and society. Not 
that you must cook and sew, my dear, 
Sewing Dut that you should be able to in 

case the need should arise. With the 
ability to cook and sew, you can properly direct 
the cook or seamstress, and they will respect you 
for your education. 

I want you to be golden girls — girls who love 
home and children ; girls who love simple things, 
natural things. I want you to be sweet rather 
than pretty, lovable rather than popular. 



THINK 121 

Do not look upon matrimony as a means to 
provide food and finery for yourself. 

Do not be ashamed of an old-fashioned mother. 
Do not be a " good fellow." Do not be afraid 
to say, " I can't afford it." 

Help the family. Be part of it, and not apart 
from it. 

When you are old enough to have a beau, do 
not be afraid to bring him into your home, no 
matter how humble it is. 

Do not esteem your boy friends for the amount 
of money they spend on your entertainment. 
Happiness does not consist of lobster-suppers and 
taxi-rides to the theatre. Ten cents will bring 
just as much real happiness as ten dollars spent 
for mere display. 

Be modest, girls ; it is your greatest asset. 

Don't gossip or belittle other girls. Find the 
good you can say of others; that quality makes 
you more attractive. 

Watch out for candied words and flattery; 
these things mark the hypocrite, and a hypocrite 
is an abomination. Flattery is a practiced deceit 
— a dishonorable bait to catch affections. 

Do not allow any young man to relate a story 
in your presence that has the slightest risque 
turn to it. 



122 THINK 

Show by your words and your actions that 
such presumption is an insult. 

Be square with yourself; be square to the man 
who is after your heart. Put yourself mentally 
in the place of a wife when a man gets serious. 

Don't hurry, girls ; don't judge the man by his 
money prospects but by his character and ambi- 
tion. Have nothing to do with any 
Man. lg young suitor who isn't always kind, 

considerate and attentive to his 
mother. And when real love comes to you and 
you decide to marry, marry a man of character 
who courts you in the sweet, simple, old way. 

If a young man spends money extravagantly 
before marriage, hard times will always be around 
during his married life. 

The most precious possessions in the world are 
happiness and love, and these come from simple 
things, genuineness, and usefulness. 

The painted, powdered, tinsel, fluff, feathers 
and furbelow girl may be a dashing creature now, 
and you may envy her, but you, with your quiet, 
sweet, simple, sensible ways — you will win real 
love, real respect, real affection, real pleasures, 
real satisfaction, in all the days to come; you 
will make a success of your life. 

Frills and feathers may have an attraction for 



THINK 123 

the girl who makes a fizzle of her life, but sweet- 
ness and simplicity, sentiment and sense, are 
precious jewels that will endure for all time. 

The world is full of new-fashioned, slangy, 
dancy, fancy, foolish girls who marry for style, 

stunts and society, and their married 
The Road „,-.,., 
to Unhap- life is failure, worry and regret. 

piness. They do not realize, poor things, un- 

til it is too late, that money and luxury are not 
enough to bring happiness. When this truth 
comes home to them, there is nothing left but 
disillusion, heartache and sorrow. 

Be the golden, pure, old-fashioned, sweet, sim- 
ple, quiet, modest girl who knows things, rather 
than one who is a show-off girl. 

When the right young man comes along, he 
will recognize the kind of girl you are when he 
meets you. He will see in you a girl of pure 
gold ; a sweet, natural, sensible girl, who will be a 
helpmate to him and not a drawback. 

So then, here is the hope that you, girl, will 
start right, keep right, and end right. I want 
you to think of sense, sentiment, and simplicity 
rather than dances, dollars, duds and doings. 

I want your life to be one of poise, happiness 
and serenity instead of noise, worry and nerves. 

This little message is all for you — GIRL. 



30. 



Many churches to-day are running to extremes 
in one way or another. 

On the one hand, they are conducted along 1 
the lines of form, ceremony and ritualism; the 
other extreme results in excitement, ecstasy and 
fanaticism. 

The church of forms, rituals and ceremonies 
attracts the passive who are willing to let the 
priest or pastor or prelate take charge of the 
religious work while they, the attendants or wor- 
shippers, sit quietly by and say " amen " and join 
in the responses. 

Paul said, " Away with those forms." Christ, 

in ministering to humanity, gave no forms and 

made no set sentences for his fol- 
Real 
Religion. lowers. The Lord's Prayer was given 

with the admonition, " After this 
manner pray ye," and certainly not with the com- 
mand, " Pray ye with these words." 

Form, ceremony and ritual are much like most 
associated charities — a sort of convention. 
Forms cannot express the deep emotions, the 
124 



THINK 125 

natural longings, or the human desires; they are 
echoes, hollow and unsatisfying. 

For those who do not feel, for those who do not 
act, for those who belong to churches because of 
convention, or for social reasons, forms and frills 
fill the bill. 

Form is an exterior religion, an outward show. 
Form doesn't touch the heart or awaken the soul. 
Form in religion is like a formal dinner. It is 
a gaudy display rather than a plan to satisfy hu- 
man heart hunger. 

Opposite to formal religion is the frenzied 

" scare-you-to-death " excitement method, which 

relies upon mental intoxication to stir 
" Scare- You- r 

to-Death" the people. Like other forms of m- 

Method. . .. ., rr , rr 

toxication, the effect soon wears off. 

I have little patience or sympathy for the busi- 
ness men who hire professional evangelists to 
come to town to start revivals. The sensational 
revivalists have too acute an appreciation of the 
dollar to convince me of their sincerity in their 
work. 

A laborer is worthy of his hire, and a preacher, 
teacher or benefactor of any sort should be well 
paid. But when I see these big guns taking away 
from ten to one hundred thousand dollars in cold 
cash for a three weeks' campaign converting the 



126 THINK 

poor suffering people, the thought comes to me 
that if the evangelist were sincere, he would buy 
a lot of bread, coal and underwear, and hire a lot 
of trained nurses with a big part of that money. 

Christ and his Apostles were of the people; 
they worked with and among the people; they 
had no committees, no guarantees and no busi- 
ness men's subscription lists. 

It's mighty hard to read about these sensa- 
tional evangelists taking in thousands of dollars 
for a couple of weeks' revival meetings, and har- 
monize that religion with the religion of Christ, 
the carpenter, and his Apostles, who were fisher- 
men and workmen. 

The exciting, intoxicating, frenzied revival 
method is pretty much the same in its working 
wherever it is practised. The evan- 
Do It. y gelist starts in with the song, 
" Where is My Wandering Boy To- 
night; " then follows the picture of mother, which 
is painted with sobs of blood. Then follows 
mother's death-bed scene until the audience is in 
tears. Gesticulation, mimicry, acting, sensation^ 
alism, slang and weepy stories follow, until the 
ferment of excitement is developed to a high 
pitch, and droves flock down the sawdust trail to 
be made over on the instant into sanctified beings. 



THINK 127 

The evangelist stays until his engagement is 
up, and then departs with a pocket full of nice 
fat bank drafts. 

But there is nothing new about this method. 
It is as old as humanity. It is the same method 
that is practised in the more remote 
Method" ano ^ uncivilized portions of the world 

to-day, where garishly painted sav- 
ages congregate and render homage to their 
gods in an orgy of yelling, whooping and beating 
of the tom-tom. 

It is a sad commentary on the established pro- 
fession of the ministry that sensational profes- 
sionals are called in and paid fabulous prices to 
convert the people in their community. 

I do not take much stock in either the frigid 
form-and-ceremonial method with its frills, or the 
frenzied fire-and-brimstone, scare-you-to-it ex- 
treme. 

Somewhere between these extremes is the ra- 
tional, natural, sane road to travel — the religion 
of brotherly love; of cheers, not tears; of hope, 
not fear; of courage, not weakness; of joy, not 
sorrow; of help, not hindrance. 

The religion that makes us love one another 
here — not the kind that says we shall know each 
other there; the religion that has to do with 



128 THINK 

human passions, human trials, human 

2?Lo R ve. iSi&n needs > instgad of the fri 2 id £orm or 
the fevered frenzy; the religion that 

avoids the extremes of heat and cold — that's the 

kind the world needs most. 

Christ taught love, kindness, charity. He spoke 
not of beautiful churches and opera-singing 
choirs. He spoke not of robes, vestments, forms 
or rituals. 

One of the most beautiful things in the Bible 
is the story of the good Samaritan with his sim- 
ple, unostentatious aid to a wounded man — a 
man whom the Samaritan knew as an enemy of 
his people, but who was none the less a brother. 
And you will remember how the priest of the 
temple — the man who taught charity and love 
— drew up his skirts and passed the wounded 
man by. 



31. 



Patriotism — one's love for one's country — is 

a natural and a beautiful sentiment. With the 

spirit of idealism behind it, it be- 

Country. comes one of the noblest sentiments 

that has been developed in the course 

of humanity's long upward march to civilization. 

To-day, on Europe's battlefields, millions of 
men are hazarding their lives. They do so gladly, 
willingly, with a firm and reasoned conviction in 
the justice of the cause for which they fight. That 
is intelligent patriotism — the kind of patriotism 
that is based on understanding and knowledge. 

But the world to-day is conscious that there is 
another kind of patriotism — a false patriotism 
that is fostered and fomented by ambitious gov- 
ernments for purposes of aggression and aggran- 
dizement. 

This false patriotism is not a free or voluntary 
thing. It is the blind, instinctive feeling of sheep- 
like men who have been bred beneath the yoke 
of servility and obedience and are like clay in the 
hands of their overlords. They know not why 
129 



130 THINK 

they fight, but through fear or intimidation or 
force, they slavishly submit to the will of their 
Kaiser or Emperor and his minions. 

This great war, and most every great war of 
the past, was made possible by a distorted under- 
standing of patriotism. This false patriotism is 
one of the narrowest and most cruel forces in the 
world, and when linked with militarism, it be- 
comes the most dangerous. It causes wars, waste 
and desolation. It creates jealousies, inspires 
jingoism and braggadocio, keeps alive the fight 
spirit, and menaces the peace and security of na- 
tions. 

Militaristic rulers, fired by selfish egotism, 

know full well what a powerful force patriotism 

is, and they nurse the babes with 
Militarism. 

fatherland stuff and give them tin 

soldiers to play with and tin helmets to wear. 

Patriotism, when it reflects love of the place 
of one's nativity, when it is based on home ties 
and associations, is a beautiful and touching 
thing. But when unscrupulous autocrats utilize 
this sentiment for their own aggressive purposes, 
it becomes a menace that must be put down if 
other nations are to enjoy the blessings of peace 
and liberty. 

To keep this false patriotism alive, wars must 



THINK 131 

be made, so that human blood can be secured to 

keep the monster from famishing. 
False 

Patriotism And so, on slight pretexts, or no pre- 
texts at all, the war lords and impe- 
rial autocrats rattle their swords in their scab- 
bards and let loose the avalanche of war on the 
world. 

Such patriotism is failure and worse than fail- 
ure. It is a reversion to the brute age of man- 
kind. It flings a moral challenge to the world 
that the world must either accept or perish. 

So much for this monstrous perversion of Right 
and Reason that has turned Europe into a sham- 
bles, and has banded the civilized nations of the 
world together in a mighty struggle for freedom 
and democracy. 

True patriotism is one of the world's construc- 
tive forces. It overleaps national frontiers, and 
is inspired by the ideals of international peace, 
good-will and amity. It looks forward to the 
time when national barriers will be let down, and 
the brotherhood of man will be recognized the 
world over. 

Such patriotism is the patriotism of Right 
Makes Might — not Might Makes Right. It is 
the kind of patriotism that prevails only among 
the free, democratic, peace-loving peoples of the 



132 THINK 

world who are fighting to-day for the preserva- 
tion of free institutions and the rights of human- 
ity. 

The opposite sort of patriotism is the auto- 
cratic, militaristic kind that has furnished the 
world with an example of savage ferocity and 
vindictive cruelty that it will not soon forget. 

In this great struggle, we see Democracy 
ranged against Autocracy, Right against Might, 
True Patriotism against False Patriotism. The 
Right will triumph, as it always has, when pitted 
against the forces of hate, greed and reaction. 



32. 



Danger lies in extremes. Too much of any- 
thing is bad for the human being's health. There 
is a certain comfortable proportion of 
Medium^ 7 exercise and rest which, when mixed 
together, will give bodily efficiency. 
Too much exercise is bad, too little is bad. 

Until recent years, our vocations and the habit 
of going to or from our places of business gave> 
us a well-balanced amount of exercise, rest, work 
and pleasure, and all went well. 

Lately, we hear much about worry, neuras- 
thenia, nervous prostration and the like. There 
are several contributing causes to the mental and 
physical ills which are caused by " nerves." . 

First of all, we have an epidemic of labor-sav- 
ing devices. The principal argument used by the 
manufacturer of a labor-saving device is, " It 
makes money and saves work." Making money 
and getting soft snaps seem to be the objectives 
of most human beings. 

The labor-saving devices take away exercise. 
The machine does the work. The artisan simply 
133 



134 THINK 

feeds the hopper, puts in a new roll, or drops in 
the material. He sits down and watches the 
wheels go around, likely smoking a cigarette in 
the meanwhile, and more than likely reading the 
sporting sheet of a yellow newspaper. 

Possibly few of my readers have given the 
matter serious thought, and they will be astound- 
ed at the changed conditions of work 
Changed 
Conditions which have come into our modern 

life. It will be interesting to note 
here some of these changes. 

Men used to live within walking distance of 
their work. Now the electric street railway and 
the speedy automobile have eliminated the neces- 
sity for much walking. 

Men used to climb stairs. The elevator has 
now so accustomed us to the conveniences that 
stairs are taboo. 

Machines have replaced muscles. The old 
printer walked from case to case and got exer- 
cise. To-day he sits in an easy backed chair and 
uses a linotype. 

Telephoning is quicker than traveling. No one 
" runs for a doctor." 

Our houses have electric washers, electric irons 
and many other labor-saving devices. 

Even the farmer has his telephone, his auto, 



THINK 135 

his riding plow, his milking machine and his 
cream separator. 

In the stores, the cash boy has disappeared. 
The cash carrier takes the money to a girl who 
sits in the office, a machine makes the change, 
and another machine does her mathematics. 

The modern idea of efficiency puts a premium 
on the sedentary feature of occupations, and em- 
ployes are frequently automatons that 
Inactivity. s *k The business man sits at his 
desk, sits in a comfortable automo- 
bile as he goes home, sits at the dinner table and 
sits all evening at the theater, or at the card 
table. It is sit, sit, sit until he gets a big abdo- 
men, a puffy skin and a bad liver. 

He tries to counteract this with forced exer- 
cise in a gymnasium or a couple of hours golfing 
a week. Very likely, his golfing is more inter- 
esting because of the side bets than because of 
the exercise. 

We are losing out on the natural, pleasurable, 
and practical exercises, mixed in the right pro- 
portions to promote physical poise and health. 
Things are too easy, luxury and comfort too teas- 
ing, for the ordinary mortal to resist, and the 
great mob sits or rides hundreds of times when 
they should stand or walk. 



136 THINK 

When my objective point is five or six blocks, 
I walk, and I think on the way. I probably get in 
from two to four miles of walking every day, 
which my friends would save by riding in the 
street cars or autos. 

I walk to my office every morning — a distance 
of nearly four miles. 

I walk alone, so that I may relax and not ex- 
pend conscious effort as is the case when I walk 
with another. 

That morning walk prevents me from reading 
slush and worthless news, and relieves me of the 
necessity of talking and using up nerve energy. 

I get the worth-while news from my paper by 
the headlines and by trained ability to separate 
the wheat from the chaff. 

I just feel fine all the time, and it's because I 

get to bed early, sleep plenty, exercise naturally, 

think properly and get the four great 
Four Great t> r J & s 

Body- body-builders in plenty: air, water, 

sunshine, food; and the other four 
great health-builders, which are: good thought, 
good exercise, good rest, and good cheer. 

The great crowd aims at ease, and so the busi- 
ness man sits and loses out on the exercise 'his 
body and mind must have. And therefore the 
great crowd pays tribute to doctors, sanitariums, 



THINK 137 

rest cures, fake tonics, worthless medicines, freak- 
ish diet fads, and crazy cults, isms, and discover- 
ies that claim to bring health by the easy, lazy, 
comfortable sitting route. 

Believe me, dear reader, it is not in the cards to 
play the game of health that way. " There ain't 
no sich animal " said the ruben as he saw the 
giraffe in the circus, and likewise, there " aint no 
sich thing " as health and happiness for the man 
who persistently antagonizes Nature, and hunts 
ease where exercise is demanded. 

The law of compensation is inexorable in its 
demand that you have to pay for what you get 
and that you can't get worth-while things by 
worthless plans. 

You must exercise enough to balance things, to 
clear the system, to preserve your strength; it 
doesn't take much time. 



33. 



This afternoon I am sitting on a glacial rock in 
the forest at the foot of Mount Shasta. A beau- 
tiful spot in which to rest and a glorious page 
from the book of nature to read. 

A canopy of deepest blue sky above, with sun- 
shine unstopped by clouds. The rays of old Sol 
pulsate themselves into an endless 
Nature. variety of flowers, plants and vegeta- 

ble life which Mother Earth has given 
birth to. Glorious trees of magnificent size reach 
up into the blue and give us shade. Ozone sweeps 
gently through the forest, impregnated with the 
perfume of fir, balsam, cedar, pine and flowers. 

In this spot, nature has thrown up mountains 
of volcanic rock, which hold the winter's snow in 
everlasting supply to quench the thirst of plant, 
of animal, and of the millions of humans in the 
lower country. 

The whole hillside around me is a community 
of springs of crystal water laden with iron and 
precious salts. It is the breast of Mother Earth 
which nurses her offspring. 
138 



THINK 139 

Here are no noises of the street ; the newsboy's 
cry of " extra " is not heard. The raucous voice 
of the peddler, the din of trucks, the honk of auto- 
mobiles, the clatter of the city — all these are 
absent. 

There is no noise here — just the sweet music 
of falling water, and the aeolian lullaby made by 
the breeze playing on the pine needles. 

My eyes take in a panorama of beautiful nature 
in colors and contrasts that would give stage 
fright to any artist who tried to paint the scenes 
on canvas. 

I am getting pep. This is my treatment for 

tired nerves ; 'tis the " medcin' of the hills ; " 'tis 

nature's cure, and how it brings the 

^aming ^.^ ^^ ^^ t ^ e bottle of tonic into 

contempt ! I'm letting down the high 
tension voltage and getting the calm, natural pul- 
sation that nature intended the human machine 
to have. 

So quiet, so peaceful, so natural is the view that 
I drink in inspiration of a worth-while kind. No 
war news to read, no records of tragedy, no de- 
grading chronicles of man's passions, of man's 
meanness and man's selfishness. 

A little chipmunk sits upright on a rock before 
me wondering at the movements of my yellow 



140 THINK 

pencil and the black mark it makes on the paper. 

A delicate lace-winged insect lights on my tab- 
let, and a saucy " camp robber," or mutton bird, 
wonders at the unusual sight of me, the big man 
animal brother. A big beetle is getting his provi- 
sions for the winter. I recognize his occupation, 
for I've read about him in Fabre's wonderful 
books on insect life. 

Here, in the sanctum sanctorum of the forest, 
I am made a member of Nature's lodge, and the 
ants and bugs and beetles and flowers 
Lodge. an( l plants and trees are initiating me 

and telling me the secrets of the or- 
der. I can only tell you, who are in the great busy 
world outside, the lessons and morals. The real 
secrets I must not tell; you will receive them 
when you, too, come to the hills and forests, and 
sit down on a rock alone and go through the ini- 
tiation. 

You are invited to come in ; your application is 
approved, and you are eligible to membership. 

Come to Nature's lodge-meeting and clear away 
the cobwebs from your weary brain ; get inspira- 
tion and be a man again. 

Come — soothe and rest and build up those 
shredded, weakened, tired, weary nerves. Let the 
sun put its coat of health on you, and let the 



THINK 141 

ozone put the red blood of strength in your veins. 

Come and get perfect brain and body-resting 
sleep. Come to this wonderful, happy, helpful 
lodge and get a store of energy, and 
Recreate. an abundance of vital ammunition 
with which to make the fight, when 
you go back to your factory or office. The doctor 
can lance the carbuncle, but Nature's outdoor 
medicine will prevent your having a carbuncle. 

The doctor can stop a pain with a poison drug, 
but Nature's outdoor medicine will prevent your 
having the disorder which makes the pain. 

No, brother, you can't get health out of a bottle 
or a pill box. But you can get it from Mother 
Nature's laboratory, where she compounds air, 
water, sunshine, beauty, music, thought; where 
she gives you exercise and rest, health, happiness, 
all summed up into cashable assets for the human 
in the shape of poise, efficiency and peace. 



34. 



Mother, you are the one person in all the world 
whose kindness was never the preface to a re- 
quest. That's the sweetest tribute we 
Mother. , , t ■ 

can pay you, and the most trutnful 

one. It covers devotion, love, sentiment, mother- 
hood, and all the noble attributes that go to make 
the word " Mother " the most hallowed, most sa- 
cred, most beautiful word in the English lan- 
guage. 

There are not words or sentences that can ex- 
press to you what we think of you or convey our 
appreciation of you. 

You want our love; you have it. You should 
be told of our love ; we tell you. Appreciation and 
gratitude are payments on account, but with all 
our appreciation and with our whole life's grati- 
tude, the debt we are under can never be paid. 

" We have careful words for the stranger, 
And smiles for the some-time guest — 

But oft to our own the bitter tone, 
Though we love our own the best." 

142 



THINK 143 

We've hurt you, Mother, many times, by our 
thoughtlessness and by the resentment we felt 
over your plans and your views about the things 
we did, and you have had heartaches because of 
such actions of ours. 

Forgive us, Mother, we're sorry. And there 
you are, dear; the moment we ask your forgive- 
ness, your great, tender, loving heart 
The Mother , - - , - - 

Xove. nas forgiven us and erased the marks 

of transgression. Always thinking of 
us, always excusing us, always doing for us, al- 
ways watching us and always loving us in the 
most unselfish way. 

We love you, Mother ; we appreciate you. We 
are going to show our appreciation and love so 
much more from now on. We have just come to 
our senses and realized what a wonderful, neces- 
sary, helpful being you are. 

Your sweetness, your gentleness, your good- 
ness, your love, are parts of you. They all go to 
make up that word " Mother." 

Your life, your acts, your example, your Moth- 
erhood, have all helped the world so much more 
than you will ever know. 

In the everlasting record of good deeds, your 
name is in gold. 

In the everlasting memory of those who appre- 



144 THINK 

date you, your face, your life, is a sacred, helpful 
picture that grows more beautiful as the days 
pass. 

In tenderness, in appreciation, in love, let us 
dedicate these thoughts and voice these expres- 
sions to Mother, who gives her life by inches, and 
who would give it all on the instant for her chil- 
dren, if necessity called for the sacrifice. 

How feeble are words when we try to describe 
Mother! 



35. 



This is your inning, Dad. 

There have been so many beautiful things writ- 
ten about Mother and all the rest of the family 
that it is high time we should tell you 
Jus how much we love you and how much 

we appreciate you. 

You've worked so hard; you've been so ambi- 
tious to do things for your loved ones, and they 
have accepted your sacrifice and work and watch- 
fulness as matter of fact. 

You've had dreams of a some day when you 
would relax and play and enjoy, but you have set 
that some day too far ahead. You consider your- 
self only after all your loved ones are comfortable 
and happy, and time is passing, Dad. 

You are too unselfish, too much centered in that 
some day. Let's change things a bit, Dad. Some- 
times the "some day" doesn't come. 

You are entitled to happiness and pleasure and 
health and joy right here, now, to-day. It's your 
duty to have them. 

Your loved ones do not want you to spend your 

145 



146 THINK 

health in getting wealth. They don't want to see 
you worn-out, tired, weary and unhappy, in the 
evening of your life. Besides it's your duty to let 
them share the responsibility, and work out their 
own problems. They will be better equipped for 
life after you are gone if you let them gain knowl- 
edge by practical experience. 

Come on, Dad; get in the group and enjoy 
things now and you will live longer, and get more 

out of life, and give more pleasure 
Keep Alive , , „ ^ . . , 

the Spirit to your loved ones. Get in the game, 

of Youth. Dad . let > s see the old light and twin . 

kle in your eyes ; let's have the sunshine on your 
face; the love-light on your lips, and the happi- 
ness in your heart. 

Leave your cares at the office; prepare your 
mind for play, and you will feel so much better 
and stronger and so much more successful in 
your business. 

We don't want to hear any more sh-h-h — 
sh-h-h — or whispers when you come home. We 
don't want to feel that uncomfortable feeling of 
restraint; let's laugh and sing and love and play 
— let's make your home-coming a joyous event. 

We all love you, Dad, but you haven't made it 
as comfortable as you might for us when we try 
to express our love. You've been too tired, too 



THINK 147 

busy, too much occupied with those business 
thoughts. 

Don't you see how we love you and how we 
appreciate you? Don't you know that there is no 
one in the world who can take the place of Dad? 

Keep your heart young, Dad; we will help it 
you only say, " Come on." We are waiting for 
the signal. Let's start the new schedule tonight. 
Come on, Dad, what do you say? 



3& 



We speak of the three kingdoms: the animal, 
the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms, and 

every substance is classified into one 
x/jhat Our 

Bodies are °* these. The exact truth is there is 
Composed Of. but one kingdom) which is the min- 
eral. The vegetable substances and animal com- 
binations are made of mineral elements. 

In a rough way we distinguish the mineral 
kingdom as those substances called elements, 
such as iron, sulphur, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 
sodium and the like. 

These elements are unchangeable in them- 
selves; they do not grow. The animal is made 
of mineral elements associated in certain propor- 
tions, such as albumin, carbon, lime, water, salt 
and the like. The vegetable kingdom also con- 
sists of these various chemical combinations. 

Seed, when planted, extracts the minerals from 
the air and the earth and combines them into a 
plant, which grows and has for its object the mak- 
ing of seeds to reproduce and perpetuate itself. 

The plant has life, but it has no spiritual or 

148 



THINK 149 

mental equipment, and therein vegetable life dif- 
fers from the animal life. The animal eats vege- 
table and animal flesh. Through the vegetable he 
gets the mineral matter necessary for body-build- 
ing. He also gets a plentiful supply of min- 
eral from the flesh he eats, which flesh was first 
built up through the vegetables the animal ate. 

These are definite facts. 

The human body may be analyzed and sepa- 
rated into something like a dozen substances, 
among which are water, which is three-fourths of 
the body's structure, carbon, lime, phosphorus, 
iron, potassium, salt and so on. 

By reading a book on anatomy you can learn 
just exactly the proportions of the substances in 
the human body. 

All these chemicals are formed in the shape of 
little cells, myriads of which are in the body. 
These cells are constantly being destroyed and 
new ones made to take their place. 

Parts of the body are replaced every twenty- 
four hours ; other parts less often. 

Scientists tell us that the whole body is re- 
placed every seven years. Every move you make 

destroys cells which nature has to re- 
What Our , T , . , , , 

Bodies Neea. place. Isn t it reasonable then to con- 
clude that if a man should fail to eat 



150 THINK 

enough lime for his body-building, his bones 
would suffer? If he does not get enough iron, 
his blood will suffer, and so on. I am convinced 
that most physical ailments are caused by a de- 
ficiency of the mineral elements in the body. 

Phosphorus and potash are necessary to human 
welfare. These elements are in the husk of the 
wheat, and when the husk is taken off in making 
flour, the resulting product is mostly starch. The 
person who lives mostly on white bread will suf- 
fer from lack of phosphorus and potash. 

Nothing could be better for the health of the 
American people than the nation-wide food cam- 
paigns the government is conducting. The edu- 
cational value of these campaigns is enormous. 

Eat less wheat! White bread is unessential. 
Bran, or whole wheat bread, is far more healthful 
and nourishing, and contains more of the ele- 
ments the human body needs. 

Eat more fruit. People do not eat enough fruit. 
Every year thousands of bushels of peaches and 
grapes and other fruit go to waste because the 
demand is not great enough to ship the entire out- 
put to the great consuming centers. 

Study your body's needs. Health is maintained 
at its proper level only so long as you eat care- 
fully and wisely. 



37. 



The practice of medicine in the past has been 
directed towards the curing of disease and physi- 
cal ailments already developed. The practice of 
medicine in the future is to be along preventive 
lines. Science is showing us how to prevent in- 
fection. Science is fighting the deadly microbe 
which comes to us in the air we breathe, the water 
we drink, and the food we eat, and the infected 
things we touch. 

Nature has supplied the human body with a 
home guard of necessary bacteria, and in the cir- 

culation system are phagocytes which 

The " Why " J r & J 

of Disease, fight the invading microbes and gen- 
erally destroy them. When the sys- 
tem is weakened through disease, through lack of 
exercise, or through improper food, disease has an 
easy time. 

I want you to remember this golden prescrip- 
tion It is composed of the following : Good Air, 
Good Water, Good Sunshine, Good Food, Good 
Exercise, Good Cheer, Good Rest and Good 
Thought. If you take this golden prescription, 
151 



152 THINK 

you will make of yourself a giant in brain and 
brawn strength. 

You can't get health out of a bottle. You can't 
get the system to absorb iron if you take it in the 
form of tincture of iron. You can eat a pound of 
rust, which is oxide of iron, and none of that iron 
will be absorbed in the system. 

As I have explained in another chapter, you 
must take the mineral in the system through the 
vegetable route. You will get iron 
to Eat ^at will be assimilated when you eat 

beefsteak. Beefsteak has blood; the 
the blood has iron. You will also get iron when 
you eat spinach. 

Every element necessary for your body is found 
in some vegetable or animal food ; therefore, you 
should refrain from confining yourself to a very 
few articles of food. 

Don't pay any attention to the faddist who 

gives you a rigorous diet or unpalatable food. You 

simply make yourself miserable, and 
Fads, Cults, , , 

Isms. y° u generate more worry and unhap- 

piness by your discipline than the 
good you get from these freak fads. There are 
a thousand different fads and cults and isms, each 
one claiming to be right. Probably each one con- 
tains a small portion of right. But it is a sure 



THINK 153 

thing that The Right is too big a thing to be con- 
fined within narrow formulae and creeds. 

We all eat too much meat, but that a strict veg- 
etarian diet is the necessary thing for good health 
I deny. The sheep, the cow, and horse are vege- 
tarians, and they are short lived. The eagle, the 
lion, the man, eat animal food, and they are long 
lived. 

I may be prejudiced, but it does seem to me 
that the strict vegetarians are a skinny, sallow- 
looking lot of humans, speaking generally. I do 
find that the healthier specimens of vegetarians 
are those who eat plenty of eggs and drink plenty 
of milk, both of which are animal food, and both 
of which have nearly all the elements necessary 
to sustain life. 

I don't like fads in the matter of eating. The 
amount a person consumes should be in exact 
accord with the body's requirements — neither 
more nor less. 

The human body is a machine from a food 
standpoint. It is an engine that has work to do, 
and accordingly the amount of fuel necessary for 
the engine should be in proportion to the amount 
of work that the engine is called on to perform. 

The majority of city-dwelling people eat too 
much. This is especially true of men in seden- 



154 THINK 

tary occupations, and women whose 
Eat Less, J 

Exercise household duties are light. If your 

engine needs twenty pounds of steam, 

how foolish it is to keep up a hundred pounds 

pressure! If you had five-horsepower work to 

perform, how foolish it would be to install a two- 

hundred-and-fif ty-pound engine ! 

Eat less of everything. Fat and Habbiness and 
over-feeding is a national vice with us. The fash- 
ionable cafes and restaurants are thronged with 
puffy, heavy- jowled men and women, eating and 
drinking. Hotels and food-purveyors are con- 
stantly inventing new palate-tickling dishes to 
tempt your appetite. Orchestras and dramatic 
troupes are engaged to entertain and amuse you 
while you overload your stomach, take on fat, and 
lay the foundation for future cases of indigestion 
or dyspepsia. 

There is no escaping a day of reckoning for 
such mistreatment of yourself. If you would keep 
yourself fit, it is important that you eat only what 
is necessary to maintain yourself at normal 
weight and strength. 

You do not often find dyspepsia or indigestion 
among men or women who work hard physically. 
Isn't it reasonable to suppose that this is because 
they work hard? 



THINK 155 

You who work indoors, with little physical ex- 
ercise, will find wonderful benefits if you will cut 
down the fuel. 

Much of the physical trouble comes from filling 
up the boiler too much. 

Cut down the food and you will feel better. 



38. 



Anger and revenge are great pull-backs to 
health. 

Anger makes the blood rush to the head, weak- 
ens the body, and distorts the vision. 

When a woman gets angry, she quarrels with 
her lover, her husband or her children. Any one 
of these things is a calamity. 

When a man gets angry, he is a wild man. His 
syes glitter, his mouth is cruel, his fists clinch, 
his body trembles, his blood veins strain, and he 
does more harm to his system in five minutes of 
anger than nature can repair in a day. 

Anger makes weak stomachs, dizzy heads, poor 

judgment, lost friends, despair and sickness, and 

if the habit becomes confirmed, will 

AllaJCI 

and Poise. likely lead to apoplexy. When two 
men have differences, watch the cool 
man finish victor; the angry man always loses. 
Keep your head; let the other fellow fret and 
fume. 

He will tie himself up in a knot, and when the 
gong is rung, he will be the loser. 
156 



THINK 157 

Serenity is one of God's blessings. Fortunate 
is the man who can hold his serenity. 

When you get a letter that stirs you to anger, 
don't answer that letter for forty-eight hours; 
then write a moderately vitriolic letter — and 
then tear it up. 

I know you are tempted and goaded, and your 

limit of endurance is sometimes reached. But I 

know that revenge is sweet only in 
The Futility to J 

of Revenge, anticipation. I know that revenge by 

anger and by the cruel " eye for an 

eye " measure is never, never sweet. 

I have been the victim of imposition, ingrati- 
tude and insincerity, and advantage has been 
taken of me because I kept my poise and serenity. 

I have been called easy, and soft, and friends 
have shown me where I was imposed upon, but 
I was stooping to conquer. I kept my reserve, 
my resistance, and my power ready until time, 
place, and preparedness let me spring my coup, 
and then I cashed in beautifully in principal and 
interest for those acts and hurts. 

I have power now in my hands to make others 
suffer keenly and deeply for wrongs they have 
done me. Yet I do not exercise that power to 
revenge. 

I have been misjudged and misunderstood, be- 



158 THINK 

cause cowardly persons have lied and villified me, 
and have accused me of motives and acts of which 
I was innocent. 

I am well hated now by one person in particu- 
lar, who blames me for things another is guilty 
of. A word from me would clear myself, but it 
would bring gloom and despair to that person and 
would not make me any more cognizant of my 
innocence. 

Time somehow will bring out the truth; the 

cowardly, guilty individual who basks in the 

favor of the one who is angry at me 

Arbiter. w ^ surely pay for his wrong. This 

I know, and I am satisfied with the 

ultimate result. 

My former friend, who is angry at me, would 
simply switch the anger current to the guilty one 
if I told the facts; the guilty person couldn't 
stand that anger like I can. My act would break 
up a home and bring misery. The satisfaction I 
would receive would not equal the sorrow my act 
would cause to others. 

I am far removed from the location where these 
people live, and I can stand the anger of the one 
who puts the blame on me by accepting the lies 
of another as truth. 

I have the documents in black and white, yet I 



THINK 159 

don't use them because I have poise and the con- 
sciousness of knowing I am right, and those who 
are dear to me know it, too, 

IVe tried both plans, the plan of anger and the 
plan of poise, and I like poise better. 

I believe I hear more birds, I believe I get more 
pleasure out of life and living than the man who 
gets angry and loves revenge. 

Anyway, I think so, and " as a man thinketh in 
his heart, so is he." 



39. 



Sleeping, like breathing and digesting, is con- 
trolled by the subconscious brain centers. Nat- 
ural sleep requires no positive mental impulse ; it's 
just relaxing, and nature takes care of the process. 

That is natural sleep, but when you start your 

dry cell battery, the brain, and commence to worry 

and fear, you are going to stay awake. 

Then the conscious mind dominates 

the subconscious mind, and you banish the very 

comforter you seek to woo. 

Business men who work under high tension all 
day on business matters, and high tension all 
evening in threshing over again the business of 
the day, are almost sure to suffer from insomnia. 

The continuance of this habit of thinking of 
business day and night brings on the insomnia 
habit and that, in turn, gives rise to the delusion 
that you are fighting for your natural sleep. This 
produces worry, the demon that kills and maims. 

To have an occasional wakeful night is natural ; 
it is an evidence of intelligence : the mental dul- 
lard never has wakeful nights. 
160 



THINK 161 

Unless the fear of sleeplessness becomes a full 
grown phobia, no anxiety need be felt. The fear 
of insomnia, the over-anxiety to go to sleep, is to 
be more dreaded than insomnia itself. 

To get refreshing sleep you must put yourself 
in a state of actual physical tiredness. Take ex- 
ercise. Walk in one direction until 
*J*L *e first symptoms of becoming tired 

appear, then walk home. Take a hot 
bath, then sponge with cold or cool water. Put 
a cold cloth at the head, and rub the backbone 
with cold water. 

Open your windows wide, then relax. Don't 
worry ; you are going to sleep. 

Lie on your back, open your eyes wide, look up 
as if you were trying to see your eyebrows, hold 
your eyes open this way ten to twenty seconds, 
then close them slowly. Repeat this several 
times. 

Sleep will have descended on you before you 
realize it. 

Or occupy your mind with auto-suggestions 
like this : " I am going to sleep — sound, heavy, 
restful, peaceful sleep. My eyelids are getting 
heavy — heavy. I am going to close them and go 
to sleep." 

Don't try to count imaginary sheep jumping 



162 THINK 

over fence rails. Don't count numbers. It is a 
bad habit. 

If these suggestions do not help you the first 
night, say : " All right, my brain was too active ; 
to-morrow I will let down a bit." 

Next night eat one or two dry crackers; chew 
them slowly, masticate them thoroughly until 
you can swallow easily. 

This little food will draw the blood pressure 
from the brain and help you to go to sleep. 

Drive out business and worry thoughts. Think 
faith and courage thoughts. 



40. 



To live down the past and erase the errors, live 
the present boldly. 

Do not chastise or condemn yourself for mis- 
takes you have made. You are not alone ; every- 
one has made missteps — has hurt others or 
wronged himself. 

Everyone has had reverses and met trouble and 
misfortune. It's the plan of things. It is by un- 
dergoing trials like these that we gain 
lYHstaifes. m experience and wisdom. We are 
enabled to correct our future acts by 
utilizing the lessons which our mistakes have 
taught us. 

Yesterday is dead ; forget it. Face about. Live 
to-day; be busy, be active, be intent on doing 
right and accomplishing things worth while. 

The world's memory is short. A misdeed, an 
error, a wrongful act on your part may set busy 
tongues wagging to-day, and you may suffer from 
calumny and criticism. Of course, your errors 
will be magnified and your wrongs enlarged be- 
163 



164 THINK 

yond the truth; that's the penalty you pay for 
your transgressions. 

Lies are always added to truth in telling of 
one's misdeeds. Be brave. Weather the storm; 
it will soon blow over. To-morrow the world will 
forget. 

You've suffered in your own conscience ; that's 
all the debt you can pay on the old score. 

Now, then, get busy with the glorious oppor- 
tunity that today presents. Don't make the same 
mistake again. There are no eyes 
Won't Help. * n tne back of your head; look for- 
ward. Don't worry by envying the 
other fellow and comparing his good deeds with 
your mistakes; you only see his good. He has 
had troubles and made mistakes, too, but you and 
the world have forgotten them. 

If every man's sins were printed on his fore- 
head, the crowds that pass by would all wear 
their hats over their eyes. 

I'm trying to comfort you, and slap you on the 
back, and tell you that you are just human, and 
all humans make false steps. 

The patriarchs in the Bible made mistakes, but 
they got in the fold. History has perpetuated 
their names. Their lives, on the whole, were 
worth while. It's the sum total of acts that count. 



41. 



One man says the present is everything, that 
eternity is nothing. The other man says eternity 
is everything, that the present is noth- 
To-morrow. i n §- I believe the real truth is that 
both are man's chief concern, and 
neither view comprehends all truth. In this mat- 
ter, the general rule I have so often pointed out 
will harmoniously apply. That rule is: Avoid 
extremes. 

Those who believe that the Now, the Present, 
is the all-important thing in man's life have the 
fashionable or favorite point of view. 

Man has much definite information about the 
present, he knows much about life. He is in the 
midst of life — it pulsates all around him and in 
him. 

We know positively that the law of compensa- 
tion is inexorable in its demand for right and pos- 
itive in its punishment of wrong. 

We know that on this earth kindness, love, oc- 
cupation, help, truth, honor and sympathy are in- 
vestments which bring happiness to-day. You get 
165 



166 THINK 

your pay instantly when you have done a helpful 
act, and you get your punishment instantly when 
you have done a hurtful act. 

That there is a future most of us agree, because 
good sense and logic point to that sane and rea- 
sonable conclusion. So be it. With 
after. ** a belief in the future estate, it is rea- 
sonable to assume that our acts and 
lives in the present will have influence on our fu- 
ture estate. 

We know positively of to-day; we know the 
happiness we can get from good deeds done to- 
day. We come to this knowledge by experience. 

If we will have power in the future to look back 
on to-day's acts, well and good if to-day's acts are 
worth while. 

The other view, that Eternity is everything and 
the present is nothing, is the antiquated view, the 
narrow view — the, I might say, illiterate view. 

That view warps the present life; it calls for 
present self-chastisement, present gloom, present 
sorrow and present misery. 

It takes the tangible definite to-day, calls it 
nothing, and accepts the intangible unknown eter- 
nity as everything. 

It trades the definite for the indefinite. It calls 
life a bubble, a vapor, a shadow. In fact, it throws 



THINK 167 

a pall over to-day's sunshine, and re- 
PhUosophy! g ards our earthly life as a sort of pur- 
gatory — a dismal unhappy punish- 
ment ante-chamber where man exists and waits, 
peeping out of his cell windows for a little im- 
agined view of eternity. 

He waits and endures the unpleasant interval, 
steeled against the definite pleasures of to-day, 
his whole outlook colored by a fanatical and in- 
toxicated belief in the expected happiness of the 
undefined future. 

He refuses to think of the definite life of to-day 
that we all know, and spoils the thought of those 
who do. 

He is a blockade to progress, a disagreeable 
part of life's picture. 

He gets no happiness in the to-day which is in 
his hands ; he loses his opportunity to be of serv- 
ice here, and lives in the hope of a vague and neb- 
ulous future state which has no connection with 
the realities of every-day life. 

Both theories as ultimate beliefs are wrong, yet 
each has some truth in its conclusion. 

By taking the words " Eternity " and " Pres- 
ent* " and saying that both mean everything, we 
avoid extremes and form a truth that is rational, 
and harmonious to good reason. 



168 THINK 

The man who says that the present is all, does 
so because he is an utilitarian. He reasons from 
the definite and the seeable, and refuses to be- 
lieve in the abstract. Anything that is outside 
the sphere of his vision and action is of little 
concern to him. 

The man who says eternity is all, wastes a 
golden opportunity and warps himself into a mis- 
erable hermit. 

Life is irrevocable. Every act in our life is 
placed, set, and fixed. 

Every act goes in the record book of yester- 
day, and it cannot be changed. 

Acts that hurt others will rebound and hurt 
us. Deeds that help others will rebound and 
help us. This much is certain. 

There is a future, I believe that. There is a 
God, I believe that. 

Just what the future is, and just what God is, 
I do not know in perfect detail. 

Reward for good and punishment for evil is 
part of God's plan, and I am conscious of this 
truth. 

I know that justice prevails in this life, and this 
life is what I am living now. 

If I live and act to-day in accordance with what 
I sincerely believe is in tune with God's purpose, 



THINK 169 

I shall, in my future estate, benefit by 

The Good , f T ,. ' . . 

That Lies those acts. If I live and act to-day in 

disregard of all around me, selfishly 
catering to my personal desires and believing that 
eternity is everything and the present nothing, I 
am neglecting the opportunity to do good now in 
the hope of a future personal reward, the very 
nature of which is unknowable. I shall there- 
fore strive to do, and to be, right — to be kind, 
helpful, cheery and smiling now, for the reward 
such acts bring now. 

And I shall doubtless have as good a record and 
passport to the future as the man who suffers now 
and lives only upon his selfish hope of the future. 

His is the faith of fear, mine the faith of reason 
in the all-wise, all-powerful, all-seeing, all-know- 
ing Ruler of the universe, who gave me my life, 
my brain, my reason, which I am trying to use, as 
well as my limitations will permit, in helping my- 
self and helping others to smile, to be happy, to 
be serene, to be confident, to be competent, to be 
useful. 

Everything lives and dies in accordance with 
the plan of the Creator of the Universe, and you 
are an atom and I am an atom in that Universe, 
which is governed by a power too big and too 
great for us to comprehend. 



170 THINK 

Verily we presume when we say : " We have all 
the truth ; think as we do or you are lost." 

The old world has not told its full story. The 
Universe of which this world is a part is still a 
deep, unfathomable mystery. 

We shall not know all truth until the great re- 
vealing time. 

We cannot change the pages of the millions of 
years gone by. We can do every little to change 
the pages of the millions of years to 
of To-day. come. What little we can do, we can 
only do TO-DAY. To-day is yours 
and mine ; let's do the best we can with our pos- 
session in act and thought and word. 

The sun goes down behind the sky-line on the 
West as it has done for millions of years. I lay 
aside my pen with a bigger view, a deeper appre- 
ciation of the Creator, and a profounder faith in 
His wisdom and works than ever. 

God made. God rules. God plans. And verily, 
we are weaklings and foolish who presume by sel- 
fish prayer to suggest to Him what He shall do. 

Let us strive to be appreciative of Him; let us 
try to lift ourselves to the sublime plane of real- 
izing that we are part of Him and His plan, and 
that failure is impossible to us, if we keep up and 
on, doing good, speaking softly, dealing gently, 



THINK 171 

showing kindness to-day, and living in accord- 
ance with the big, broad, generous, charitable plan 
instead of in the little, bigoted, narrow, selfish, 
conceited idea that we are sole possessors of truth 
and that the man who differs with us in belief 
is in error. 

This chapter is about big things, and in it is a 
big moral for all who are big enough to grasp it. 



42. 



" I believe in him because he is so sincere." 

You've heard that, haven't you? I never could 
understand how a sensible person could use such 
logic. Sincerity is no evidence of 
ana Tnrth. truth. The Hindu mother is sincere 
when she throws her babe to the croc- 
odiles, but her sincerity is no proof that by this 
sacrifice she is sure of her salvation. 

The Christian Scientist is sincere in the belief 
that medicines do not cure diseases. The doctor 
is equally sincere in his belief that medicines do 
cure disease. 

The Theosophist is sincere, the Atheist, the 
Agnostic, the Christian, the Pagan, the Moham- 
medan, the Buddhist, the Sunworshipper, the Re- 
publican, the Democrat, the Progressive, the Pro- 
hibitionist, the Brewer, all these are sincere in 
their beliefs. And as these beliefs are different, 
it is common sense to say that no one creed, sect, 
belief, branch, dogma or system includes or em- 
bodies all truth. 

It is true that every channel or avenue we meet 
172 



THINK 173 

in life's travel has some truth, but it is not for you 
or me to assume that we are the sole 
on Truth? Y possessors of wisdom and the real dis- 
coverers of all truth. We must not 
take the conclusions we arrive at and expect to 
force the world to accept without protest our 
rules for conduct, our methods for living, our 
practices for morals, or our beliefs for their guid- 
ance. 

Converts to new doctrines, new issues, new 
cults, and to the old ones, too, are made largely 
because the ambassadors or proselyters seem so 
fervid and sincere in expounding what they claim 
is the definite truth. 

The believers in a cult or code of ethics are 
auto-hypnotized; their visions are narrowed. 

By focusing their thought on their special be- 
lief, they bring together sophistry, argument, ex- 
ample and so-called proof that gives them facility 
in arguing the case or expounding their doctrine. 

You can make no gain in trying to argue with 

a Christian Scientist. You ask for concrete rules, 

definite answers and proofs other 
Christian .- ■ , . -. A 

Science. than their flat statements, and you 

are told you have not the understand- 
ing — you do not view the subject from the right 
plane, and that the truth cannot be shown you. 



174 THINK 

You are told to have faith and belief, to eliminate 
antagonism, and to study " Science and Health/' 
and you will receive the divine spirit and see the 
light. 

The Scientist is sincere ; he shows you " Science 
and Health " with a lot of testimonials in the back 
to prove that Christian Science cures disease. 
Every patent medicine, every science, every sys- 
tem of healing has testimonials by the hundreds. 

Scientists say there is no disease, no material 
— that we are only spirit or soul or thought — 
that we are not matter but mind. Health, they 
tell us, is truth and disease is error. They deny 
disease, yet " Science and Health " and the mid- 
week experience meetings have testimonials of 
disease cured by Christian Science. 

There is much truth in Christian Science. Peo- 
ple are helped by it; people are sincere in their 
belief in it, but that Christian Science is all truth, 
all-powerful, all-right, all-sufficient, cannot be 
proven. 

What about the people who have gone hence 
before Christian Science was ever heard of? 

The theological religion of to-day differs radi- 
cally in practice and belief from what it was fifty 
years ago. 

If the Protestant religion be all truth, what be- 



THINK 175 

came of our religious ancestors who died before 
Martin Luther found the truth? 

I have no quarrel with the Christian Scientist, 
the Protestant, the Roman Catholic, the Buddhist 
or the Mohammedan. I must be gen- 
ri*x3&L. erous and broad enough to admit that 
others have the right to think and be 
sincere. All sciences have truth, but no science, 
sect, cult, dogma or creed is ALL truth. 

Sincerity is evidence of honest conviction, but 
that your sincerity in your belief must be ac- 
cepted by me as proof that I should believe as 
you do, is, I believe, the place where I have the 
undoubted right to say : " I reserve the right to 
my own conclusions, and I would be unjust to 
myself if I should force myself to accept your 
viewpoint without fully satisfying myself that 
you were right." 

So, because a person is sincere in a conviction 
that is contrary to your conscientious belief, do 
not be disturbed, there is no need to swerve from 
your own common sense analysis of the matter, 
or be convinced against your better judgment. 

No one possesses all the truth. It is for you 
and me to do our plain duty as we see it — to do 
the best we can each day in act and thought and 
word. 



176 THINK 

We can pretty much agree on the simple essen- 
tial truths which are proven. That is — being hon- 
est, truthful, kind, lovable, sympathetic, cheerful ; 
doing good, helping one another, and doing things 
worth while. 

If we agree on these things, and do useful work, 
and think helpful thoughts, we are doing our duty. 
Theories, arguments and studying too 
Speculation, deeply on bootless systems, codes, be- 
liefs, cults, isms and doctrines, is a 
waste of time. When we can, here and now, de- 
rive definite benefits from doing the simple and 
helpful things, and acting and thinking the sim- 
ple, practical cheer thoughts, it is neither neces- 
sary nor helpful for us to waste time on spiritual- 
ism or theoretical beliefs that cannot be proven to 
our own satisfaction. 

We are asked to believe these strange, imprac- 
tical, unnatural beliefs because of the sincerity of 
others. It's better to believe and to credit the 
things we can ourselves measure, understand and 
sincerely adopt. 

There are hundreds of strange beliefs and spir- 
itual systems, each claiming to be all-powerful, 
all-right. If any one is all truth, then all the oth- 
ers are all wrong. 

The bigot who assumes he is the sole possessor 



THINK 177 

of truth — the cult, sect, ism, or science that 
claims to possess all truth and presumes to lay 
down the exact rules for the world to obey — 
should be classed with those misguided religions 
and institutions of the dark past which burned 
human beings who dared to doubt their claim to 
the possession of all truth and knowledge. 

God never gave his approval to any one man- 
made religious sect. 

God is the universal good power. Man often 
tries to dwarf God's idea to the narrow dimen- 
sions of his own small soul. 



43. 



Whiskey must go. It is written on the pages 

of the record book of man's progress. Likewise 

must the quack doctor and the fake 
Whiskey and 
Fake Medi- medicine go. They have had their 

day. The quack doctor has already 
breathed his last in many parts of the country. 
The fake medicine schemes are still with us, but 
they are becoming increasingly difficult to put 
over. That they are doomed to extinction, there 
can be no doubt. 

The side-whiskered advertising doctor who 
magnifies symptoms and proclaims them to be 
grave forerunners of awful, debilitating disease, is 
nothing short of a criminal. He is one of the 
worst of criminals, because he imposes upon the 
credulity of the ignorant, excites their fear by 
means of sensational scarehead advertising, and 
then when he has finally lured them into his spi- 
der-web, fleeces them unmercifully. These char- 
latans are really more contemptible than any 
thief, for the thief does not pretend to be any- 
thing else but what he is, while the quack doctor 
178 



THINK 179 

swindles and exploits you under the guise of be- 
ing your benefactor. 

As I have repeatedly explained, illness, feeling 
" out of sorts/* local pains and sickness, unless of 
the contagious or infectious kind, are largely con- 
ditions of the mind. 

Most of the temporary ailments are caused by 
constipation, wrong diet or lack of exercise. The 
doctor gives a laxative, nature re-asserts herself, 
and the patient is cured. 

Chronic ailments require long treatments — 
making long bills and many visits for the quack 
doctor. 

Your health and happiness are things largely 
in your own control. However, when you feel 
you must have a doctor, go to your 
Physician* 7 family physician and not to a strange 
doctor who advertises. His adver- 
tisement is merely a spiderweb to catch and hold 
you while he robs you. 

It is a hopeful sign of the brighter future 
toward which man is progressing, that the re- 
spectable papers will not lend their aid to swin- 
dling doctors. The best papers will not carry 
these quack doctor or fake medicine ads. 

Before long the government will pass laws abol- 
ishing this baneful, shameful, quack advertising. 



180 THINK 

Quack doctoring, gambling, liquor selling — 
these are all swindling methods to get money, and 
in the getting, the ghouls and parasites who prac- 
tise these " professions " are killing men, ruining 
homes, destroying happiness, holding back prog- 
ress. 

The one object of the quack doctor is to size 
you up and see what you " are good for." " Good 
for " means how much money can he get from 
you, and how long can he keep you as a patient 
to contribute to his coffers. 

Let every reader of this book enroll as an 
opponent to quack doctors and quack medicines, 
and by word and influence help to hasten the day 
when such pernicious swindlers and swindling 
schemes are things of the past. 



44. 

No two minds can see the same picture in the 
same way, nor can two persons, armed and 
equipped with logic, come to the same definite 
conclusions on religion. 

The old Scripture said: "An eye for an eye 
and a tooth for a tooth." The new Scripture 
teaches us to " turn the other cheek " and " love 
our enemies." 

Two hundred years ago witchcraft was prac- 
tised and miserable human beings were burned 
at the stake. Thirty years ago the 
and S New. preacher who took exception to the 
universal belief of a hell of fire and 
brimstone was thrown out of the church. To-day 
no preacher believes in such a hell. 

Present day religion is really a Sunday religion. 
One and a half hours a week the members of 
the church join in singing, " We shall know each 
other there." The remainder of the week they 
make it a point to keep from knowing each 
other here. 

The Protestant church divides itself into nu- 
181 



182 THINK 

merous sects, each one built on some particular 

ordinance or practice. Each one, in 

Sectarianism. matters of doctrine, will swallow a 

camel but will strain at a gnat. One sect insists 
that baptism shall be by immersion because the 
disciples baptized that way. They believe in fol- 
lowing custom literally, yet in the cities they 
immerse the members in a big tub under the 
pulpit, which practice is entirely different from 
the method employed by John the Baptist. 

Another sect insists upon having a communion 
every Sunday because the Bible says, "As often 
as you do this," etc. To be literal in the matter 
of communion, the Lord's Supper should be 
served at night, as the original was, and it should 
be supper and not a few pieces of broken crackers. 

The sect that insists on following the Scrip- 
tures in the matter of baptism by immersion fails 
to follow the Scriptures in the matter of wash- 
ing the feet or anointing the head. 

Many years ago, churches considered it a sac- 
rilege to use an organ. To-day they have orches- 
tras and hire operatic singers. 

So it seems that the church is broadening 
out. Thinking men refuse to believe that religion 
should any longer be a matter of self-chastise- 
ment and worry, sobs and misery. Because so 



THINK 183 

much of this sort of teaching is prevalent, the 
church is not making the gains it should. The 
church is largely supported by nice little women 
— many of them maiden ladies who have little 
to do and know little of the great problems of 
the busy world. 

I am thoroughly convinced that the church 
must recognize that a great evolution is taking 
place — that we must be more char- 
Religion, itable, more broad in our views, less 
technical in our tenets and more 
practical in our work. We will have to cut down 
the fences between the sects and get together ir* 
the great field for a common cause, rather than 
try to maintain little independent vineyards. 

Religion must teach smiles and joy, courage 
and brotherly love, instead of frowns, dejection, 
fear and worry. 

It must teach us how to be and how to get 
good out of our to-day on earth. If we are good 
and do good here, we certainly need have no 
fear for our future prospects. 

Day by day we are progressing from narrow 
ness, bigotry, selfishness and envy, to broadness, 
reason, brotherly love and contentment, and we 
shall progress from the narrow confines of obsti- 
nate orthodoxy or bulldogmatics, by breaking 



184 THINK 

down sect and cult barriers until we are joined 
together in a universal church in 
sal Church." which all can put their hearts and be- 
liefs — in which all can find full 
range for their spiritual belief and expression. 
That big, broad, right church will be in harmony 
with God's purpose. 

The Creator made all men, and He doesn't con- 
fine His love or His interest to any one little man- 
made, narrow sect or creed. 

" God is love." " Love thy neighbor." " Help 
the weak; cheer the grief stricken." Those are 
the commands and purposes we find everywhere 
in the Scriptures. 

" He that believeth in me shall be saved." 
That's a definite promise, and it is not qualified by 
a lot of creed paragraphs and beliefs. That prom- 
ise doesn't have any " buts " or " ifs." It doesn't 
say we shall be saved if we be Methodists or 
Catholics, Baptists or Presbyterians. Those 
names are man-made, and the creeds of those 
churches are man-made, too. 

At the congress of religions in the World's Fair 
at Chicago, over three hundred religions and sects 
were represented by delegates from all over the 
world, and every one of these delegates, with 
hearty accord, sang, " Praise God From Whom 



THINK 185 

All Blessings Flow " and " Rock of Ages." Those 
hymns were universal; they fitted all creeds and 
sects. 

Big men in the church are intensely interested 
in the get-together universal church, and each 
year will mark a definite progress toward amal- 
gamation of sects and divisions. 

There should be no Methodist Church North 
and Methodist Church South. 

There should not be churches like the Congre- 
gational and Presbyterian, whose creeds are iden- 
tical, the difference being only in the officers. 

The country village of 1,000 population has 
five churches; it should have only one. The 
country is full of half -starved preachers and weak, 
struggling congregations. 

The get-together movement will help religion, 
and it's going to happen surely. 



45. 



Every year the business man goes over his 
stock, tools, fixtures, and accounts, and prepares 
a statement of assets and liabilities so as to get 
a fairly accurate understanding of his profit and 
loss. 

If he didn't take this inventory, his net worth 
would be a matter of guess work. 

This inventory, which deals with money, ma- 
terials, etc., and things which are mixed more or 
less with the human element, is affected by con- 
ditions of trade, crops, competition, supply and 
demand. 

The business man takes all these conditions 
into consideration in preparing for the coming 
year. He red flags the mistakes and green flags 
the good plans. 

The business man should carry the inventory 
further. Every month or so he should take a 
careful inventory of himself, putting 
Inventory. down his assets of health, initiative, 
patience, ability to work, smiles, hon- 
esty, sincerity, and the like. So also he should 
186 



THINK 187 

put down on the debit side in the list of liabili- 
ties the pull-backs, hindrances and other busi- 
ness-killers. These items are un- 
Liabilities* truth, unfairness, sharp practice, 
grouchiness, impatience, worry, ill- 
health, gloom, meanness, broken word, unfilled 
promises and the like. 

In making up the inventory, pay particular 
attention to your habits : smoking, drinking, over- 
eating, useless display, useless social functions, 
and other useless things that pull on your nerves 
and your pocket book. 

Then check up department A, which is your 
family. How have you dealt with your family 
and children? 

Department B is friends. How do you stand 
in your treatment of them? 

Department C includes all other persons. Did 
you lie to, steal from, cheat or defraud any one? 
How much cash profit did you make ? How much 
less a man did the act make you? 

Go over your self-respect account. Does it 
show profit or loss? 

Check up your employees' account. What has 
your stewardship shown? Have you drawn the 
employees closer, or have you driven them fur- 
ther from you? 



188 THINK 

Analyze your spiritual account. Is your re- 
ligious belief a sham or a conviction? Do you 
sing on Sunday, " We shall know each other 
there," or do you make it a point to know and 
love your brother here, seven days a week? 

Be fair in your inventory. Write down the 
facts in the two columns designated " good " 
and " bad," then go over the list and 
s*atenSrt. the P u * a red danger flag on the bad. 
Keep the list until next inventory and 
see whether you have made a gain or loss in 
your net moral standing. 

Don't read this and say, " A good idea." Do 
the thing literally. 

Take a clean sheet of paper and write your per- 
sonal assets and liabilities down in the two col- 
umns marked " good " and " bad." 

If this inventory doesn't help, then you may 
call me a false prophet. 

I know the plan is a good one. I know it will 
help you. If it helps you, you will thank me. 
There can be no harm in trying, because it's a 
worth-while thing to test. 

The business man who never takes inventory 
is likely to bump some day. 



46. 



The ego is in us. It is a good thing to have, 
but egotism needs the soft pedal when we speak 
or do things. 

Many people are unconscious of their egotism, 
yet their conversation carries the suggestion, 
" Even I, who am superior to the herd, would do 
this or that." 

For instance, two persons were arguing about 
the merits of an inexpensive automobile. Paren- 
thetically, I may say that one be- 
Pronoun. longed to the Ford class, and the 
other to the can't-afford class. A 
can't-afford snob came to the rescue of the Ford 
champion by saying, " That's a good car ; why, I 
wouldn't mind owning one of them myself," and 
he beamed at the party with the consciousness 
of having settled the matter and removed the 
stigma from the Ford car. 

This egotism often crops out when one shows 
a group picture in which he appears. He doesn't 
wait for you to find him; he pokes his arm over 
your shoulder and says, " That's me." 
189 



190 THINK 

To each of us, in the very nature of things, the 
" I " is the center of our world. We see things 
always through our I's. 

If we wish to get along without friction, we 
must remember that the other fellow has his I's 
also, and when we try to make him see things 
through out I's, it makes trouble. 

The hall mark of education, refinement and 
character, in the broad sense, is the ability to 
exclude the personal so far as possi- 
Breeding. Me from our conversation. And be 
big enough to grant to others their 
undoubted right to see and think from their own 
standpoint. 

Argument develops egotism more than almost 
anything else will. 

How often have you convinced another in an 
argument? 

How often have you been convinced in an argu- 
ment? 

The world is big; there are millions of others 
in it, and our job is a big one if we 'tend pretty 
well to our own knittin'. 



47. 



Four hundred and twenty-six years ago Chris- 
topher Columbus landed on an island which he 
thought was India. 

Chris was mighty happy as he put his foot on 
good old Mother Earth, not so much because he 
had discovered a new way to India, as he thought, 
but because his foot touched land. 

Two days before he landed on San Salvador, 
his crew pitched into him and threatened to 
throw him in the sea and turn back with the ship 
to Spain. 

If Chris had shown the white feather, 1492 
would not be the date of the first line in the geog- 
raphy, announcing the " Discovery of 
Step Counts. America." Chris had perseverance — 
the stuff that makes men successful. 
He started to find India by sailing westward. 
He didn't succeed in his purpose, but his deter- 
mination was rewarded just the same, for he 
found a new country, and that was worth while. 

Before he started, he was promised ten per 
cent of the revenue from any lands he might dis- 



192 THINK 

cover. Just imagine what that would mean to- 
day. 

Columbus had perseverance and pep, and his 
unwavering fidelity to his cause brought him suc- 
cess in his efforts. 

The world has improved since 1492, but the 
percentage of men who would keep everlastingly 
at it like Columbus did, has not increased, per- 
haps. 

Columbus sailed with three ships, the largest 
sixty-six feet long. He steered in the direction 
of the setting sun. His crew was 120 men. None 
of them were enthusiastic at the start; all of 
them disgusted, discouraged and ready to mutiny 
toward the last. 

But Christopher kept the ships pointed West, 

through rain and shine, through drifting, breeze- 

_ less days and through wild stormy 

Keeping 

Everlastingly nights. He kept on and on and on, 

at It 

and he brought home the bacon, 

which, being interpreted, means that success 

crowned his efforts. 

Perseverance and pep — when all is said and 
done, these are the factors without which no 
great achievement is possible. 

It was the mileage made on October 12th, 1492, 
that counted. 



THINK 193 

It is the last step in a race that counts. 

It is the last stroke on the nail that counts. 

The moral is that many a prize has been lost 
just when it was ready to be plucked. 

Perseverance — patience — pluck — pep — 
these are magic words. They are the " Open 
Sesame " of modern life. They open the door to 
opportunity, and will bring you prosperity, peace 
and plenty. 



48. 



The man who ridicules everything is on the 
toboggan slide, and he will end up by becoming 
an out-and-out grouch. 

You and I know men who never have a pleas- 
ant word to say of anyone, or a serious commen- 
dation of anything. 

Ridicule and sarcasm are often coated with 

would-be humor, and are sometimes decked out 

as puns. By and by, however, this 
Ridicule and , . - . .. . , 

Humor. b ias toward ridicule and sarcasm gets 

to be a habit, and the coat of humor 

becomes threadbare. 

Just at this time friends depart, for the grouch 
phase of the disease has started. 

Sarcasm and ridicule are powerful weapons 
when used adroitly and for good purposes. But 
when sarcasm and ridicule are used constantly as 
a means to generate fun, or as vehicles for hu- 
mor, then the evil commences. The fun disap- 
pears; the sting remains. 

People will listen to you for awhile if you good- 
naturedly ridicule a thing, but when you are 
194 



THINK 195 

known to have the habit, that is when friends 
give you the go-by. 

Sarcasm and ridicule wound deeply; they are 
hot pokers jabbed in quivering flesh. 

Don't juggle with ridicule or sarcasm, for peo- 
ple look beneath the veneer nowadays. They re- 
member and repeat the axiom, 
We D apoi er ° US "There's many a true word spoken 
in jest." There are so many beauti- 
ful things to say, so many kind expressions to 
utter, so many helpful hints to give, that we 
should be ashamed to say or do things even jok- 
ingly that may hurt another. 

When you ridicule a thing or a person, you may 
ridicule the tender heart of one you should cheer 
and help. 

Ridicule is the negative approach to a subject 
anyway; the only good it can accomplish is by 
reflex action or rebound force. 

Ridicule is mistakenly conceived, by many, as 
humor. It is used because it can so easily be 
employed, in a seemingly clever way, to create a 
laugh. 

Humor of the clean sort is a rare gift. Humor 
may easily descend to low comedy through the 
use of ridicule, and often the audience does not 
differentiate between low comedy and rare humor. 






196 THINK 

The masses will laugh when the comedian on 
the stage hits his friend with a club ; that sort of 
fun-making satisfies adults who have children's 
brains, and people of similar brain-construction 
will also laugh at jokes which ride on ridicule. 
But you who read these lines are worthy of bet- 
ter things ; that's why you are reading this book. 
If, in my audience, there are those who have the 
ridicule habit, I want to arouse you to a better 
sense of humor than is possible through the em- 
ployment of ridicule and sarcasm. 

I don't want you to descend to the level of the 
grouch. The slide-down is so easy ; the climbing 
back is so very hard. 

Ridicule and sarcasm are cheap, slap-stick 
methods to produce fun. They leave a sting many 
times when you are not aware of it. 

When fighting whiskey, sin, corruption or or- 
ganized evil, then use burning ridicule and caus- 
tic sarcasm to sizzle and destroy the 
When You 
Can Go things that need to be destroyed. 

Next time you find yourself using 
ridicule or sarcasm to provoke mirth, remember 
you are toying with a habit-forming practice that 
is likely to get the best of you unless you stop 
and stop now. 



49. 



A wife is either a partner or an employee. If 
a partner, she has a right to the fifty-fifty split 
on profits; if an employee, she is en- 
and Partner, titled to her wages. A thrifty hus- 
band is commendable, but a show-me- 
what-you-did-with-that-money husband should 
be punished by being sentenced to attend pink 
teas, afternoon receptions, and to match samples 
at the dry goods store. 

Married folks must be on a partnership basis, 
or there's sand in the gear box. 

Give the wife the check-book; let her pay the 
bills. Play fair with her; show her what your 
income is; give her all you can afford and what 
economic and wise administration warrants. 
She'll cut the cloth to fit the garment. 

When the husband questions every turn, every 
move, and doles out every cent, the wife feels 
like a prisoner or a slave. Wives will do good 
team work when they are broken to double har- 
ness with their husbands. 

1!)7 



198 THINK 

Women are generally raised without being re- 
quired to economize. They have probably been 
petted and humored, and are used to preening 
and smoothing their plumage and looking pretty. 

It's the female instinct in the human. In the 

animal world, the male has the plumage and does 

the strutting and fascinating; but in 

Feathers. tne human animal, the female is the 

bird with the bright plumage. 

You can't expect her to know much about the 
economic side of the home the moment you slip 
the ring on her finger. 

But she'll shop better than her husband if he 
takes an interest in her shopping and encourages 
her in the economical administration of the house- 
hold budget.. 

She wants a word of appreciation once in a 
while. She chills under the surveillance and par- 
simony of an eagle-eyed, meddlesome husband. 

She's a sweet bird, and sweet birds and hawks 
don't nest well together. 

Where the hawk and the dove are in the same 
cage, the feathers will fly. 

As I came through the park this morning, I 
saw a pair of robins who had the right idea. They 
shared home responsibilities and did fine team 
work. I think they were mighty happy, too; 



THINK 199 

daddy red breast looked mighty proud as he hus- 
tled worms for the family breakfast. 

Mama Robin looked down with loving eyes at 
her hubby, and the little baby robins sang a 
chorus of joy at the very privilege of living in 
such a home. 

Worry will fly out of the window the moment 
the husband and wife lay their cards on the table 
and play the open hand. The moment one or the 
other keeps a few cards up their sleeve, then 
worry and trouble come back. 

The moral of this is, husbands and wives : live 
together, get together, stay together, play to- 
gether, save together, grow together, share to- 
gether. Travel the same road; don't take differ- 
ent paths. 



50. 



To-nigl^t I am in the Ozarks, and old Mother 
Earth is passing through the belt of meteoric dust 
— that great mysterious sea in the universe 
through which we pass every year about the mid- 
dle of November. 

I look out into the night and marvel at the 
countless stars in the infinite black void, and 
wonder how closely those stars may 
be connected with humanity. That 
they are connected, I have no doubt, for truly, 
" the sun, the moon, the stars, and endless space 
as well, are parts, are things, like me, that com- 
eth from and runneth by one grand power of 
which I am in truth a part, an atom though I be." 

How many stars are there? Well, let's get 
ready to appreciate number. I can see about 
3,000 ; with opera glasses I could see 30,000. 

Franklin Adams some years ago photographed 
the whole canopy with 206 exposures. He count- 
ed the stars by mathematical plans, and published 
his finding that there were 1,600,000,000 stars, 

200 



THINK 201 

That number is just about the number of humans 
on this earth, So, then, there is one star for each 
of us. 

Each of those stars, practically speaking, is 
larger than the earth. It is thought that many of 
them may have human beings who 
Infinite. think and reason like we do. Mul- 

tiply the 1,600,000,000 population on 
this earth by any portion of the 1,600,000,000 stars 
that may have thinking creatures on them; mul- 
tiply that total by the millions of years and mill- 
ions of generations that have passed out of exist- 
ence. 

Think of these numbers and limitless bound- 
aries, and then tell me, if you can, that one little 
man on one little star we call Earth has a stran- 
gle-hold on truth, and that his viewpoint, his ism, 
his little dogma, his narrow creed, is all-sufficient, 
all-right, all-inclusive. 

Verily, little protoplasm, you have another 
guess. We can, by experience and tests, prove 
two and two make four. We can by practice and 
experience prove that love, kindness, help, gen- 
tleness, sympathy, cheer and courage bring hap- 
piness. 

These are tangible things that fall within the 
province of human experience. But when one wee 



202 THINK 

Willie with sober face tells you and me and others 
that he has the truth about the defi- 
Proportion. nite > Ml workings of God's plans and 
purposes, I think of the greatness of 
1,600,000,000 stars, each with 1,600,000,000 hu- 
mans, and of the unnumbered generations gone 
by, and say that verily, we must live TO-DAY 
and do the best we can to-day in act and thought 
and word. 

Yesterday is dead; to-morrow is unknown. 
Where we have been, where we will be, we know 
not. Where we are to-day, we know, and only 
God in His omniscience knows the final answer 
as to our future estate. 

He will take us and hold us and place us in 
His keeping and according to His purpose, even 
though we do not or cannot follow or believe 
any one of the little man-formed creeds, isms or 
cults as the measure and rule for our beliefs. 

Those stars testify to the certainty of God, and 
I believe in Him. 



51. 



When a man by his brains, or by a fortunate 

combination of circumstances, rises to a position 

of prominence, he becomes a target 
Success and . _, . , - ,, 

Envy. f° r tne envious and a pattern for the 

imitator. Emulation and envy are 

ever alert in trying to steal the fruits of the leader 

or the doer of things. 

The man who makes a name gets both reward 
and punishment. The reward is his satisfaction 
in being a producer, a help to the world, and the 
glory that comes from widespread recognition and 
publicity of his accomplishment. The punish- 
ment is the slurs, the enmity, the envy and the 
detraction, to say nothing of the downright lies 
which are told about him. 

When a man writes a great book, builds a great 
machine, discovers a great truth or invents a use- 
ful article, he becomes a target for the envious 
many. 

If he does a mediocre thing, he is unnoticed ; if 
his work is a masterpiece, jealousy wags its 
tongue and untruth uses its sting. 
203 



204 THINK 

Wagner was jeered. Whistler was called a 
mere charlatan. Langley was pronounced crazy. 
Fulton and Stephenson were pitied. Columbus 
faced mutiny on his ship on the very eve of his 
discovery of land. Millet starved in his attic. 
Time has passed, and the backbiters are all in 
unmarked graves. The world, until the end of 
time, will enjoy Wagner's music. Whistler and 
Millet's paintings attract artists from all over 
the world, and inventors reverence the names of 
Fulton and Stephenson. 

The leader is assailed because he has done a 

thing worth while; the slanderers are trying to 

equal his feat, but their imitations 
The Price of , . _, 

Greatness. serve to prove his greatness. Because 

jealous ones cannot equal the leader, 
they seek to belittle him. But the truly worth- 
while man wins his laurels and he remains a 
leader. He has made his genius count, and has 
given the creature of his brain and imagination 
to the world. 

Above the clamor and noise, above the din of 
the rocks thrown at him, his masterpiece and his 
fame endure. 

And compensation, the salve to the sore, makes 
the great man deaf to the noise and immune to 
the attacks of the knockers. 



THINK 205 

In his own heart he knows he has done a thing 
worth while; his own conscience is clear, and he 
cares not for the estimate of the world. 

His own character is his chief concern, and he 
is content in the knowledge that time will bring 
its reward. 

If you have high ideals in business, if you 
achieve success on a big scale, mark well, you 
will be a subject of attacks, of lies, of malice, of 
envy, of disreputable competition. There is no 
way out of it. 

But you will be repaid. The lover of fair play, 

the grateful, true, honest, worth-while people will 

flock to your standard; the riff-raff 

ompensa 1 . ^.^ s k u jk b^ncl bushes and throw 

rocks and mud, but their acts will prove to the 
great mass of the people that your purposes, prac- 
tices and policies are right. 

Therefore, courage is to be your chief asset; 
patience, pride, perseverance, your lieutenants. 

Be not weary, grow not discouraged when your 
progress is hampered by obstacles. Every truly 
great man of the past has had his backbiters and 
detractors. 



52. 



There are three periods in our lives : the youth- 
ful, or prospective period, the adult, or introspec- 
tive period, and the old age, or retrospective 
period. 

Too many there are who look forward to old 
age with fear or dread. But old age has its joys 
and pleasures as well as middle age 
Oia. and youth, and these pleasures are 

the keener if the first and second pe- 
riods of life were lived sanely, worthily and prop- 
erly. Numerous are the great men of the past who 
have extolled the old-age period of human life 
with its wisdom and wealth of worldly experience. 

If the middle period is spent in getting dollars 
only, then old age will be days of empty nothing- 
ness. 

Youth is the planning time — the time for 
ideals and ambitions; middle age the building 
time, and old age the dividend time. 

With many, old age is spent in reading the 
book of the past — with sadness as the reader 
206 



THINK 207 

recognizes that the ideals, plans and hopes were 
shattered. As age turns the page in the book 
of the past, he reads one hope after another van- 
ished in smoke. 

Anticipation is seldom realized, and this is as 
it should be, for in time, men will learn to live 
each day for each day's good and each day's hap- 
piness. 

Let us perform our duty to-day; let us lay 
away a kindly act, a smile, a word of cheer in 
the bank of good deeds. 

Each of us has a share in this world's work. It 
matters little whether our actual share is what 
we had guessed or wished it to be. 

Vicissitudes will cross our path here and there ; 

so-called misfortune or bad luck will strike us 

when least expected. The failure of 

'Tj.g, V«llll6 

of Ideals. our dreams should not grieve us. We 
cannot reach up and grasp the stars, 
but like the pilot at the wheel at sea, we can 
steer by those stars that help us on our way. 

Our ideal may not be realized, but the journey 
to it may still be a pleasant one. 

Our ideals, plans and hopes had a real purpose, 
a real service ; they gave us courage and made us 
work, and thus they were well worth while. 

We must not, in the old age period, condemn 



208 THINK 

ourselves because our plans failed or our castles 
were shattered. 

There is no hard luck except incurable disease 
or death. It is not for us to mourn the past or 
weep for the flowers that are gone. 

In our active days, we should realize that we 
are putting memories away in our brains that 
will come back to us in old age. 

Only that which we put in our brains can we 
take out. 

So then, Mr. Avarice, I warn you: If gold is 
your God, it's cold comfort you will get in your 
sunset days. 

Build up loving ties, appreciation and the 
worth-while riches of good deeds, and in your 
evening of life, you will be welcome wherever 
you go. 

If your life was sold for gold, your evening of 
life will be short and miserable; legatees will 
grudge you your every breath; they 
Your Faith will endure you simply because they 
are checking off the days from Time's 
calendar until the day of your passing, and the 
dollars you sold your soul and heart and life 
for, will be lavishly spent by cold-blooded heirs 
who cared nothing for you. 

Leave a legacy of love, example and character, 



THINK 209 

and if, with these, there are a few dollars, they 
simply prove your frugality, economy and inde- 
pendence. 

A few dollars left to heirs will help. Many 
dollars w T ill hurt. Dollars in old age will give 
you pleasure by helping in tight corners. They 
will enable you to help your loved ones over the 
bumps in the road. 

Use the dollars to help those you love to help 
themselves, and your old age will be a busy, 
happy one, and you won't be in the way. 

To prepare for that happy period of your life, 
the foundation must be built in the active to-day 
period. 

Carry smiles into your old age; they will keep 
the heart young, the digestion good, and life will 
be worth while. 



53. 



I have traveled horseback over the great arid 
plains of the West, and have read the story of 
the ages gone before. 

In Arizona and New Mexico there are ancient 
ruins of forts and cities built by people we know 
not of. Chalcedony Park with its 
Past. petrified forest of mammoth trees si- 

lently testifies to a period when vege- 
tation was rampant on what is now a desert. 

In Wyoming there is coal enough to furnish 
fuel for the United States for several centuries. 

Coal is carbon made from decayed trees and 
vegetation, which became covered with earth and 
rock, and was subjected to tremendous pressure 
throughout the thousands of years required to 
effect the transformation. 

Oceans and floods gradually covered millions 
of acres of trees and plants with ooze and soil 
and sand. Ages turned some of these deposits 
to stone. 

There in bleak Wyoming is testimony and evi- 
dence of changes that time only can bring about. 
210 



THINK 211 

" A thousand years is as a day and a day is as 
a thousand years." Thus wrote the scribe of old. 
So, then, we must consider this estimate of time 
in reading the first chapter of Genesis which de- 
scribes the order of the world's creation. 

First took place the dividing of light from dark- 
ness, thus bringing about the rotation of day and 
night. 

Then, the separating of land and water; then, 
the birth of vegetation on the land, the creation 
of fish and reptiles in the sea, the fowls of the 
air, the beasts of the field, and finally, the higher 
animal, man. 

The pages of the earth's surface carry in their 
stratification indelible records harmonizing with 
this scriptural account of the evolu- 
of Time. t ^ on °* ^ e eartn from its chaotic 

misty past to its concrete definite 
present. Yes, this earth of ours is old, so old 
that mere man cannot contemplate or accurately 
estimate its wondrous age. 

The fossils of the mammoth reptiles and beasts 
which lived before the appearance of man on this 
planet are numerous in the fascinating West I 
know so well. 

In those arid desert hills are bones of the an- 
cient rhinoceros — parent of our horse — and 



212 THINK 

there are shells, and fossils of fish, and bones of 
animals imbedded in the strata of rock. 

Man reads these pages and he is lost in bewil- 
derment, impoverished in thought, dumb for 
words, paralyzed by his inability to co-ordinate 
this evidence with any measure of time that will 
fall within the range of human comprehension. 

Historians say the world was 4,004 years old 

before the Christian era, and 1918 years have 

passed since then, making the age 

-A.ST6 of 

the Earth. t0 date 5,922 years. It is not surpris- 
ing that through the dark ages, dates 
and facts were lost. We have not a complete 
history in written language, but we have some 
very definite history in the rocks and hills and 
lands and seas. 

The world certainly is more than 5,922 years 
old. Read the record of time so plainly visible 
at Niagara Falls. 

Niagara Falls eats away about two feet of 
rock in a century ; the gorge is a good many miles 
long. At the present rate of erosion, it takes 
2,640 years to eat away a mile. Multiply that by 
the distance between the falls and Lake Ontario 
and you have an idea of how many years Niagara 
Falls has been at work. 

Before Niagara Falls was in existence, the 



THINK 213 

country round about was under the sea; before 
that, under glaciers; before that, in the tropics-, 
and I don't know how many times it has swung 
on its pendulum between Frigid, Temperate and 
Torrid Zones. 

We are certain to become lost in a labyrinth 
of mystery when we take these known facts con- 
cerning the earth's age, and try to specify any 
particular number of millions of years as the old 
world's age. 



54. 



And now my pleasant occupation of writing 
this book draws to an end. I sincerely hope you 
have received some definite suggestions that will 
be helpful to you. 

To get you to think — that has been my aim. 
To get you to analyze yourself — to take stock 
of yourself — to know yourself — that has been 
the task I set before me. 

Think vital thoughts of courage, faith and hope. 
Then will your days pass joyfully, and your path 
be one of peace, happiness and con- 
Think, tentment. If you fill your mind with 
gloom and sorrow thoughts, your sur- 
roundings will reflect your mental attitude and 
will accentuate your misery and dejection. Do 
not give way to this weak, gloomy, pernicious 
thinking. You can be strong, you will be strong 
if you learn to control your thought habits. 

Can you face disagreeable facts without waver- 
ing? Can you meet adversity with courage in 
your heart and a smile on your lips? You can, 
214 



THINK 215 

if you have read this book carefully, calmly, 
thoughtfully, and put into practice the rules I 
have laid down. 

Do not think that you can go through life with- 
out your share of pain, disillusion and disappoint- 
ment. It can't be done. No man has ever done 
it. Clouds will come, but they can be dispelled. 
Obstacles will arise, but they can be surmounted. 
Troubles will visit you, but meet them boldly and 
courageously and do not show the white feather. 

To the thinking man or woman, life is a great 
arena wherein good and bad, joy and sorrow, 
faith and disillusion, happiness and unhappiness, 
success and failure are inextricably intermingled. 
The joy and happiness, accept gratefully ; the sor- 
row and disillusion, bear with fortitude. And 
remember, although it is not possible to enjoy 
an absolute and continued state of happiness, it 
always lies within your power to have serenity, 
poise, peace and contentment. 

When you are in the dumps — when that feel- 
ing of the hopelessness and un-worth-whileness 
of life comes over you, then, more than ever, 
think. Do not give way to fear and despondency. 
Think cheerful thoughts; think of the good 
things that life has given you, not the least 
of them being life itself. Think of the ringing 



216 THINK 

words that Milton put into the mouth of Lucifer, 
the fallen angel, in " Paradise Lost " : 

"The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 

To the person who thinks, life is ever-new, 
ever-interesting. If you have lost your grip on 
reality — if you have dwelt too long 
Newness. * n tne shadowland of doubt, fear and 

despondency — the thing to do is to 
correct your thinking. Let your mind soar in 
contemplation of the beautiful things of nature. 
Steel yourself against petty pull-backs and recog- 
nize them for what they really are — trifling an- 
noyances that serve no purpose except to distract 
you from the pursuit of the great and glorious 
goal that lies ahead. 

Only to the thinking man is it given to see 
life and see it whole. He only has the true sense 
of proportion. He keeps his eye on the main 
objective, secure in the realization that he is 
master of himself and captain of his own soul. 
He is self-sufficient, for he knows that no matter 
what befalls, he carries happiness and content- 
ment within himself wherever he goes. 

The practice of thinking is a tower of strength. 



THINK 217 

If you are a thinker, life's little troubles serve but 
to reinforce your spirit of resistance and make 
you stronger. 

So then, let this be my last word to you — 
think ! — for it is by thinking that man has risen 
to his present high estate in the world. It is by 
thinking that the future joy and happiness and 
peace of the world must be increased. 



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